Keats was an undersized man, little more than five feet high. His face
was handsome, ardent, and full of expression; the hair rich, brown, and
curling; the hazel eyes 'mellow and glowing--large, dark, and
sensitive.' He was framed for enjoyment; but with that acuteness of
feeling which turned even enjoyment into suffering, and then again
extracted a luxury out of melancholy. He had vehemence and generosity,
and the frankness which belongs to these qualities, not unmingled,
however, with a strong dose of suspicion. Apart from the overmastering
love of his closing years, his one ambition was to be a poet. His mind
was little concerned either with the severe practicalities of life, or
with the abstractions of religious faith.
His poems, consisting of three successive volumes, have been already
referred to here. The first volume, the _Poems_ of 1817, is mostly of a
juvenile kind, containing only scattered suggestions of rich endowment
and eventual excellence. _Endymion_ is lavish and profuse, nervous and
languid, the wealth of a prodigal scattered in largesse of baubles and
of gems. The last volume--comprising the _Hyperion_--is the work of a
noble poetic artist, powerful and brilliant both in imagination and in
expression. Of the writings published since their author's death, the
only one of first-rate excellence is the fragmentary _Eve of St. Mark_.
There is also the drama of _Otho the Great_, written in co-operation
with Armitage Brown; and in Keats's letters many admirable thoughts are
admirably worded.
As to the relations between Shelley and Keats, I have to refer back to
the preceding memoir of Shelley.
ADONAIS:
ITS COMPOSITION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY.
For nearly two months after the death of Keats, 23 February, 1821,
Shelley appears to have remained in ignorance of the event: he knew it
on or before 19 April. The precise date when he began his Elegy does not
seem to be recorded: one may suppose it to have been in the latter half
of May. On 5 June he wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Gisborne: 'I have been
engaged these last days in composing a poem on the death of Keats, which
will shortly be finished; and I anticipate the pleasure of reading it to
you, as some of the very few persons who will be interested in it and
understand it. It is a highly wrought piece of art, and perhaps better,
in point of composition, than anything I have written.'
A letter to Mr. Ollier followed immediately afterwards.
'Pisa, June 8th, 1821,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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