Author Birthday – 31 October – John Keats

John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 and died on 23 February 1821.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases;
It will never
Pass into nothingness.

John Keats Quotes

1. I want a brighter word than bright.
2. We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.
3. Here lies one whose name was writ in water.
4. If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.
5. You speak of Lord Byron and me; there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.
6. I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of the Imagination.
7. The poetry of the earth is never dead.
8. If I should die, 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 remembered.
9. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He wrote sonnets, odes, and epics. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. The lyric poet is known for vivid imagery and great sensuous appeal in his verse. His reputation grew after his early death, and he was admired in the Victorian Age. His influence can be seen in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the Pre-Raphaelites, among others. He died at the age of 25 and only published 54 poems, which can be read in The Complete Poems of John Keats, but he is credited with taking the English ode to its most perfect definition.

Source for Image: William Hilton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Keats_by_William_Hilton.jpg

by Amanda Patterson
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