'I heard that Mr L Said a thing I am not at all contented with - Says he 'O, he is quite the little Poet' now this is abominable - you might as well say Buonaparte is quite the little Soldier - You see what it is to be under six foot and not a lord - '  John Keats in a letter to his brother George, February 1819

31 October 2005   I broke my scanner! - well, I stepped on it and snapped the hinges - luckily, not before scanning some new additions in honor of Keats's 210th birthday.  View -
* the Ode on Melancholy, page one and page two
* the portrait of Keats within Haydon's 'Christ's Entry into Jerusalem' (the prepatory sketch is already at the site).  Keats is on top, with Wordsworth below and one of Haydon's pupils beside him.
* a scan of Hunt's 5 May 1816 'Examiner' with Keats's first published poem.  This is a large scan simply because Keats's short poem 'To Solitude' is at the bottom and I want visitors to be able to read it.
* the cover of Keats's first published book of poems (printed by C & J Ollier in 1817)

The good news is that Yahoo! webhosting has increased the amount of data transfer for my webhosting package.  That means I can (again) upload the larger scans for the Images site.  I'll do that over the next couple of months and post the news here.

21 October 2005   I added a snippet from Keats's letter to his publisher Hessey, regarding the reviews of Endymion, at the Critical Opinion page.

10 October 2005  HamiltonBook.com has both Motion's biography of Keats (the hardcover British edition) and Gittings's biography (the Penguin paperback edition) on sale.

I will be making some additions to the site on 31 October, - in celebration of Keats's 210th birthday.  I hope you visit again to see the new portraits, manuscripts, etc

27 May 2005  The June 9th edition of the New York Review of Books reviews both the just-released three-volume 'Anatomy of Melancholy' from Oxford University Press and the one-volume NYRB edition from a few years ago.  The article is a nice discussion of Robert Burton's influential work, and - of course - mentions Keats's admiration of it.  You can read Keats's pastiche of Burton in his September 1819 letter to George and Georgiana Keats.  ('I would give my favou[r]ite leg to have written this' - )

The OUP volumes, by the way, retail for over $200.  There are an additional three volumes of commentary.  If you want a much briefer (and cheaper) introduction to Burton's work, Dover Publications released 'The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy' in 2002.

In The Guardian, Andrew Motion reviews Grant Scott's long-awaited collection of Joseph Severn's letters and memoirs.  This is the first comprehensive collection of these important documents.  As for surprising revelations - who knew that Severn had an illegitimate child shortly before accompanying Keats to Rome?

The end of Motion's review is a nice epitaph for Severn -

Severn used his link with Keats to give himself a leg up in the world. He too eagerly stressed his significance as a friend (and even got himself buried next to Keats, as though he was something like a wife). But he also worked hard to keep Keats's reputation alive, and then to extend it. For those reasons, and because he lovingly helped Keats to die when no one else could or would, he deserves a memorial as painstaking as this book.

11 January 2005   Theodore Dalrymple (aka Dr Tony Daniels), one of our best essayists, paraphrases Keats's 'Ode on Melancholy' in an article about Dresden for City Journal.

Dalrymple also mentioned Keats in an earlier article which discussed modern poetry.  Its conclusion, sad but mostly true, was that our highest art form has become nothing more than 'an expression of self-regard—an expression, in short, of the radical egotism that is so prominent a feature of modern English life.'

20 December 2004   I am sprucing up the site, in honor of the holiday season.  Also, The Guardian recently featured an article on 'John Keats: Fugitive Poems'.  The book was published in May and contains lesser known works by Keats selected by Andrew Motion.  Please note that if you already own Keats's 'complete poems' (the Stillinger edition, Modern Library, etc), you already have the pieces included in this new book.  Motion's purpose is to focus attention on Keats's neglected works, such as the beautiful 'Epistle to Reynolds'.  Such works were never published during Keats's lifetime but were included in letters to friends and family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

22 September  Added all four pages of the original 'Ode to a Nightingale' manuscript, and updated its Poetry page.  I changed the Contents page yet again.

20 September  Added another excerpt in which Keats discusses criticism of his poetry to the Critical Opinion page.  The excerpt is from the Feb-May 1819 journal-letter.  The entire letter will be posted soon.

Joseph Epstein has a funny article about the office of 'Poet Laureate' in Poetry magazine.

10 September  There is a brief mention of Keats in an article about John Clare in the NYRB (unfortunately, it's not online yet but is on newstands.)  John Taylor, of course, published both poets - and apparently loaned Keats's precious copy of Chaucer to Clare after Keats's death.  There is also a brief letter discussing Keats's influence on Gerard Manley Hopkins.

27 August  Added both pages of the original manuscript of 'To Autumn'.

Added all three pages of the original manuscript of 'Ode to Psyche', as well as a detailed introduction to the poem and annotations.  I hope to annotate all the odes by the end of next week.

Redesigned and added information to the Poetry page - titles of Keats's books of poetry, publishers, dates of publication, etc

I'll post Keats's most famous letter - the Feb to May 1819 journal-letter to George and Georgiana - to the Letters page soon.  Since it contains so many famous passages, I'm creating a guide of sorts for it.

2 July  Added 'The Song of the Indian Maid' excerpt from Endymion to the poetry contents.  Posted a larger / better scan of Severn's posthumous portrait of Keats listening to a nightingale.  Posted Marianne Hunt's silhouette of Keats.

1 July  Major addition - I'm posting Sidney Colvin's 1917 biography of Keats.

17 June  Rescanned the most famous portrait of Keats, by William Hilton after Joseph Severn.  Also, I have posted two larger versions of the Brown sketch from the main page - tinted and grey-scale - if anyone wants a new wallpaper for their computer.

8 June  Upon a time, before the faery broods / Drove Nymph and Satyr from the prosperous woods / Before the ever-sleepy webmaster bade all 'Goodnight' / She added the original manuscript image of 'Lamia' to the site.

This is Keats's fair copy of the beginning of the poem.

4 May  Added two letters - Reynolds, 22 Nov 1817 and Haydon, 8 April 1818.
Also, I've been adding Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1870 work, Lady Byron Vindicated, to my Byron site (in case you're interested....)

27 March   Added original manuscript image of Keats's letter to Haydon (20 November 1816) which features the 'Great Spirits' sonnet.  Haydon later sent the sonnet to Wordsworth.

23 March   Added a selection from a 1997 article which seems to to settle the 'Grecian Urn' riddle - scroll to the bottom of the page to read it.  Also changed one of Keats's quotes at the Critical Opinion page. 

21 March   Interesting article about Philip Larkin's life and posthumous reputation at The Walrus.

17 March   Still adding letters, including one to Hunt in 1817 which included this wonderful final paragraph - 'Does Shelley go on telling strange Stories of the Death of Kings? Tell him there are strange Stories of the death of Poets - some have died before they were conceived "how do you make that out Master Vellum". Does Mrs. S. cut Bread and Butter as neatly as ever? Tell her to procure some fatal Scissors and cut the thread of Life of all to be disappointed Poets. Does Mrs Hunt tear linen in half as straight as ever? Tell her to tear from the book of Life all blank Leaves.'

5 March   I am still adding letters to the expanded Letters section.  For now the focus is on 1817-1818.  I added the original draft of The Human Seasons as well. 

27 February   Added an anonymous eulogy (possibly by Clarke) to the Contemporary Descriptions / Reminisces page.  Also added a brief quote from Shelley which I really liked - I'll put it here, too -

When somebody expressed his surprise to Shelley, that Keats, who was not very conversant with the Greek language, could write so finely and classically of their gods and goddesses, Shelley replied "He was a Greek."

26 February   Important news - I added Charles Brown's memoir of Keats to the site.  If you haven't read it, please click over and enjoy.  I fixed the extra quote marks, too (2/27.)

I also added Severn's letter to Brown announcing Keats's death here.

25 February 2004   I do occasionally read literary criticism about Keats / Romanticism.  Sometimes it's good stuff, like David Goldweber's article on Countee Cullen and Keats.  Or Ken Parille's article on Wordsworth's conflicted feelings about Byron.  Interesting work, good points, unexpected connections.  I liked them!

But then I go and read something called 'Strange longings': Keats and feet by Richard Marggraf Turley, published in Studies in Romanticism, vol 41.  And it, my webby visitors, made me laugh (certainly) - and I thought I'd share some of it with you.  It perfectly sums up the sheer inanity and unimportance of contemporary criticism.  It's the unimportance which troubles me.  There is a place for intelligent literary criticism in our society; I don't deny it.  It fulfills an important role.  And it can occasionally rise to the level of the great literature it studies.  But too often it sounds like this - (here Mr Turley is discussing the famous story, told by BR Haydon, of Keats's protection of his mother's sickroom) -

 once got hold of a naked sword and shutting the [front] door swore nobody 
 should go out. His mother wanted to do so but he threatened her so
 furiously she began to cry, and was obliged to wait till somebody through 
 the window saw her position and came to her rescue.

10 February   I added a snippet from Shelley's letter to Marianne Hunt regarding Hyperion and Keats's arrival in Italy.  I'm also changing the parchment background for the letters.

5 February   I added a larger version of Severn's sketch of Keats on his deathbed. 

2 February   I am updating and expanding the Letters section (finally!)  Check out the progress.

6 January   Added the following new images (click the links to view directly or go to the Manuscripts and Images pages):

*The original manuscript image of 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'.

*The original manuscript image of the 'Bright star!' sonnet.

*Image of Keats's last surviving letter to Fanny Brawne.

*Image of Keats's signature ('John Keats alias Junkets') with his nickname, from a letter to Leigh Hunt.  I finally found it!

Also, Severn's letters from Rome have their own page.  I updated the bibliography.  I have added more introductions to the poems.

2 January   This isn't Keats-related but it's an interesting tale about the professor who purchased a possible second photograph of Emily Dickinson on Ebay.

22 December  I forgot to post this for the longest time.  The Atlantic Monthly's 'Soundings' feature invited four writers to recite Keats's To Autumn.  There is also an introductory essay.

I changed the snippet of poetry at the bottom of the Contents page to a selection from Book II of Endymion.

18 December   A kind visitor to the site wrote to tell me about an Academy Award-nominated film titled 'Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date'.  I am currently attempting to find the director's address. 

Regular visitors will have noticed some additions/changes all over the site.  I'll post a complete list of updates here after the holidays.

31 October   The Keats Birthday Celebration is simply my attempt to remember the big day and add stuff to the site.  So click around and enjoy.

10 September  I have redesigned most major pages with this new design (the parchment background.)

22 August 2003  I am adding introductions to the poems, including the date of composition and first publication, plus the story of the composition.

2 August  I added a search engine to the site (it's about time, I know) and updated the introduction to the site.  I also added an Email page specifically for this site.

31 July  I have been working on a very detailed chronology for a while.  But I've decided to post what I've done so far (up to December 1817).  I should be finished in a few weeks.  I've discovered conflicting information in various biographies and it's been a pain sorting it out, finding the original sources, etc  The new chronology has lots of quotes; it's meant to complement the biography.

18 June 2003
After six years, I decided to redesign the main page.  I merged the Brown sketch and Keats's signature and wrote a short introduction.  There is now a 'table of contents' page (which is how you came here so you already know about it.)  I'm still working on the new Letters section.  It's slow going, but will be worth it.

8 March 2003
I added some bits to The Life of John Keats - notably, Henry Stephens's recollection of Keats scribbling doggerel during their apothecary training and Keats's comments about Fanny Brawne in Naples.

7 March 2003
The Yale Center for British Art has a wonderful exhibition entitled Romantics and Revolutionaries on display until 30 March.
Here is a link to the exhibitions main page -
http://www.yale.edu/ycba/exhibitions/index.htm
You need to click on the 'Future Exhibitions' window, though this is actually a current show.
The portraits are drawn exclusively from the NPG in London.  They include the most famous images of Keats and Byron.

January 2003
The big addition is the new extended biography.  I also changed the portrait at the bottom of the main page from Severn's 1819 oil portrait to Brown's 1819 silhouette which Keats later gave to his sister, Fanny.  I also removed the three quotes.
I am in the midst of completely redoing the Letters and Chronology sections.    

31 October 2002
Two hundred and seven years ago, my favorite poet was born....  This has actually inspired me to add some things to the website.  I'll be posting for a while - a list of new additions will be here soon.

30 September 2002
Keats's 207th birthday is about a month away....

Recent books about our favorite Romantic -
Victorian Keats: Manliness, Sexuality and Desire by James Najarian (this will be published in December 2002)
John Keats by John Blades (a guide to Keats's poetry and letters)
A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on the Poems of John Keats edited by John Strachan (a compendium of Keatsian knowledge, rather like this website)
Selected Letters: John Keats (part of Oxford's World Classics series) introduction by John Mee
Selected Letters of John Keats edited by Grant F. Scott
The Cambridge Companion to Keats (part of Cambridge Companions to Literature series) edited by Susan J. Wolfson (this is now available in paperback)
 
Earlier 2002 News
I have been 'cleaning up' the pages, updating and editing things, throughout the year.  As of May, I have changed servers yet again.  And - for the first time ever, on 2 May - the Keats site received more visitors than the ever-popular Byron site.

I have resized all the images featured at Keats: Images simply to lessen the data transfer numbers.  I have kept the larger copies, though - if you would like to view one or two, write to me.  For those of you who wrote asking for a larger version of 'Keats listening to a nightingale', click here to view it.  I apologize for the delay.
I have also organized the Images site.  It now lists all the Keats portraits - followed by Fanny Brawne - then his family - then his friends - so the works are no longer jumbled together.
It's been five years since I created this site and - at long last - it's finally listed with Yahoo!'s search engine.  This may account for the increasing number of visitors.
I still remain impressed with the general courtesy and kindness of Keats enthusiasts.  Thank you again for taking the time to write and share your thoughts about our favorite poet.

13 November 2001
 A new section - Byron on Keats.  The title is self-explanatory; it's a collection of Byron's comments about Keats's life and poetry.

3 April 200
Added excerpts from Blackwood's review, Quarterly review, and Leigh Hunt's Examiner review of Keats's first volume of poems.  Go to Keats: Critical Opinion to read.

16 March 2001
Some new features are on the way by the end of March so I hope you'll check back soon.

31 October 2000
An editorial in the New York Times called 'Chaste Weather' by Verlyn Klinkenborg muses upon Keats, autumn & - of course - the ode 'To Autumn'.  Click here to read the editorial - and here to read 'To Autumn'.  And Happy 205th Birthday to Keats as well.

22 September 2000
I added a small sub-site about Wallace Stevens, considered by many to be the most Keatsian of 20th century poets.  Please click here if you would like to read some of his poems.

15 June 2000
There is a smashing article by poet Joan Houlihan called 'On the Prosing of Poetry: How Contemporary American Poets are Denaturing the Poem' at the Webdelsol.com website.  I really enjoyed it - & agreed with most of it.  If you are at all concerned about the current state of poetry, please check it out.

8 May 2000
I was pleasantly surprised to read a poem entitled 'To John Keats, Poet, at Spring Time' in the Washington Post Book World on Sunday.  The poem was written in the 1920s by Countee Cullen, a poet of the Harlem Renaissance.  Click here to read the poem, as well as Rita Dove's thoughts on it from the Poet's Choice section.  It is always wonderful to read works inspired by Keats.  His profound and lasting impact upon such a large and diverse group of poets is a testament to his genius.
I particularly enjoyed Dove's closing thought on Cullen and this work -
'Here was a poet who was often conveniently labeled "ethnic" or "black," doing precisely what every poet should do--claiming all of literature, all of the world and its cultural treasures, as his heritage.'
It's a beautiful poem - please read it.

1 April 2000
In time for April Fool's Day....
Many new images at the Keats: Images page - including five new portraits of the poet himself!
These include the earliest surviving portrait of Keats, from 1816, and both Haydon's lifemask of the poet and his sketch of Keats for Christ's Entry into Jerusalem.  Also, Severn's posthumous portrait of Keats in Hampstead (circa 1845) and his 1819 oil portrait, a likeness which Keats much admired.

I think I have collected every portrait of the poet, but will always be on the lookout for more!

I have also begun to collect photos of the original manuscripts, and title pages of his first editions (printed by Taylor & Hessey.)

The manuscript images are at their own page, and it include accounts of each work's composition, etc.  The images are very large, so you can attempt to read Keats's handwriting rather than view a blurry scrawl.  But they will take a while to load, fast modem or not.

Also, I have posted some of my pictures of Keats's gravesite in Rome.  You can now admire the two lovely cats who live on both his and Severn's graves.

The above portrait is a posthumous sketch of Keats by Charles Wass.
 
29 March 2000
One addition -
I have created a new page - 'Works Inspired by Keats's Life and Poetry'.
I am also busily scanning so there will be another update in a few weeks.  Many more images....

March 2000
I fortunately received Walsh's 'Darkling I Listen' as a Christmas gift.  (The book is mentioned below, under 'November' news.)  It was lovely to read, and I particularly enjoyed the final chapters concerning Fanny Brawne's life after Keats.  I had never read the full history of their famous love letters, and how they came to be auctioned after her death.  (Let us all remember Wilde's rather treacly 'On the sale by auction of Keats's love letters'!)  It makes for an interesting tale, particularly how the letters were viewed by Keats's Victorian admirers.  We may now consider them among the greatest love letters ever written, but the Victorians thought they cast the poet in a negative light - overly emotional, cruel, inconsistent....  Of course, love makes fools of us all - the Victorians only liked to pretend otherwise.

The site has been up for over two years now, and is celebrating its third month at the new domain.  I have been very touched by all the lovely and kind messages I've received from visitors.  While I cannot scientifically prove that a love of Keats implies all sorts of positive qualities, I can tell you that my Keats visitors spell most of their words correctly, use punctuation, and are unfailingly polite and generous with their praise.  I do appreciate the time you take to write and share your thoughts about the site.

And now I'll let Keats himself make a wish, or prediction, for all of his admirers (from the beautiful 'Ode to Psyche') -
And there shall be for thee all soft delight
  That shadowy thought can win,
A bright torch, and a casement ope at night,
  To let the warm Love in!

I hope everyone has a wonderful end of winter.

Late December 1999
The most obvious change is the image of Keats on the main page.  I replaced Severn's famous doe-eyed image with a beautiful sketch of Keats done in July 1819.  It's a much more accurate portrait, and - thankfully - lacks the dreamy, soulful gaze of the posthumous paintings.  The sketch also shows Keats in his typical position - slouched in a chair, with his head resting on his hand.  It is a copy of a sketch already featured at the 'Images' page; however, that sketch is on a grey background, while the copy featured on the main page has a cream-colored background.  I hope you like the change.

I have posted many news images so please visit the Images page - you can view portraits of Hunt, Haydon, Brown, Severn, etc. and many other friends of Keats.  There is also a portrait of Keats's sister Fanny in old age, and new portraits of Fanny Brawne.  There are also some new images of Keats himself, and my pictures of his gravesite in Rome.

I have added several new sections to the site.  'In-depth studies' will examine various aspects of the poet's life; I have already posted studies of his last illness, his love affair with Fanny Brawne, and Keats's opinions of his Romantic contemporaries.
I am working on another addition, called 'Keats on Poetry'.  It is taking me a while; webpages often do.

Another section, called 'Contemporary Descriptions', will help you understand how Keats was viewed by his contemporaries, both as a man and artist.

Funnily enough, I was watching an old 'Married....with Children' re-run which featured their spoof of a sitcom called 'The Family Keats' - it had a nice theme song ('In the 18th century, there was a man who wrote poetry; and he lived with his family.... The Family Keats!')
Okay, wrong century and all, and really bad song.... but the jest was appreciated, particularly since comic Don Rickles was the star.

On that note, please take a look at the new additions and enjoy your visit.  There are a few things I've added that I've forgotten to mention.... but you will probably stumble across them.  Happy Holidays to all!

November 1999
'Darkling I Listen: The Last Days and Death of John Keats' by John Evangelist Walsh was published last month.  I have yet to buy it (though I will soon), so I can't post a review yet.  It supposedly focuses on Keats's religious views, his relationship with Fanny Brawne, and the exact nature of his terminal illness.

The Keats-Shelley House in Rome has moved their website to the following address: http://keats-shelley-house.org/