To Autumn - The Final Season In the Life of a Poet

To Autumn - The Final Season In the Life of a Poet

The years between 1818 and 1821 mark the final stage in John Keat's life. During this time period, Keats created some of his best poetry. These works would forever elevate Keats as a brilliant and talented poet whose mark would be left on the literary world forever. The last years of Keat's life were met with many challenges as well as inspirations. It was a combination of these which not only influenced, but inspired Keats to write such poems as, "The Eve of St. Agnes," "Lamia," "The Fall of Hyperion," and "To Autumn." "To Autumn" exemplifies maturity, resolution, perfection, and unification of a poem, a season, a day, and a poet.

John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, on the northern outskirts of London. In 1804, his father was thrown from a horse and died of a skull fracture. The following year, Keat's grandfather died. It was also about this time that his mother disappeared from her children's lives, leaving them to be raised by their grandmother. Three years later, in 1808, she reappeared ill with tuberculosis. In 1810 she died. Watching his mother die had a very strong impact on Keats. It may have influenced his decision to become a doctor. In 1811, at the age of sixteen, he became an apprentice to a Dr. Hammond. It was also at this time that Keats was handed a copy of Spenser's "Faerie Queen" by his friend and tutor, Cowden Clarke (Nylander). Keats became extremely interested in poetry.

By 1816, Keats was working in Guy's hospital in London as an apothecary and surgeon. Still, he continued to be drawn to poetry. In 1817, he was introduced to Leigh Hunt, a young journalist and poet who had a profound influence on his ...

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...nce between life and death. There is the closure of a season, a day and a genius poet. In "To Autumn" Keats asks, "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?" He need not worry. They are eternal within his poetry.

Works Cited

Bate, Walter jackson, Ed. Keats: A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964.

Forman, Buxton H. The Poetical Works of John Keats. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1895.

Motion, Andrew. Keats. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Nylander, Jon. Online posting. 5 Oct. 1999. John Keats Life Page. 119, Mar. 2000. <http://hem.passagen.se/jonnyl/keats/>

"To Autumn". The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams. New York: W.W. Norton, Inc., 2000.

Ward. Aileen. John Keats The Making of a Poet. New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1963.