The Complete Poems

John Keats is regarded as one of the most significant members of the second generation of English Romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. John Keats was born on Halloween in 1795 and passed away from TB at the age of 25. John Keats started an apprenticeship with surgeon and apothecary Thomas Hammond in 1814 and by 1816 he had earned his apothecarys licence allowing him to practise medicine. Keats passion however lay elsewhere and by the end of 1816 he had made up his mind to become a poet rather than a doctor. Keats created a huge amount of poetry despite having a brief life but the value of his reputation is mostly based on the calibre of his Odes which are distinguished by their use of sensual imagery. In an 1820 letter to Fanny Brawne Keats wrote: I have left no immortal work behind me-nothing to make my friends proud of my memory-but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things and if I had had time I would have made myself rememberd. This statement demonstrates that Keats was not well-liked during his lifetime and felt failure as he approached death. Of course history has a different perspective and considers Keats to be among the all-time greatest poets.