Instructions
Click on an image to read a short biography about that poet.
John Keats
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Keats was born in London in 1795. He lost both parents at an early age and this had a profound effect on his health thereafter and was partly why he turned to arts and literature for comfort. Keats studied medicine and became a licensed apothecary but continued to write poetry. His first publication was heavily criticised but he continued to write despite the discouragement. He is known for his appreciation of the natural world and wrote several odes, such as ‘To Autumn’ and ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. Keats had two great loves but never married, partly due to his declining health which led to his death in 1821.