1.14 HISTORY OF KEATS (1795 - 1821)
4
SA MEDICAL JOURNAL 6 JUNE 1981 875 History of Medicine • patIent John Keats (1795-1821) and tuberculosis - poet, physician An association with Italy and the Battle of Cassino H.DUBOVSKY Summary Keats trained as a physician at Guy's Hospital, but abandoned medicine for poetry. Progressive tuberculosis, a family disease, led him to Italy in the hope of a cure and to join Shelley and Byron at Pisa. He.died in Rome in an apartment overlooking the Spanish Steps. Since 1909 this has been a Keats- Sheliey literary memorial. During World War 1I its most valuable manuscripts narrowly escaped destruction during the bombardment of the Cassino monastery, where they had been sent for safe- keeping. Abie to devote but 4 years of his short life solely to poetry, Keats achieved distinction as a major English poet known for his sensitivity and sensuous imagery. S. Afr_ med. J., 59,875 (1981). Go thou to Rome, - at once the Paradise, The grave, the city and the wilderness; And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, And flowering weeds and fragrant copses dress The bones of Desolation's nakedness Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead Thy footsteps to a slope of green access Where, like an infant's smile, over the dead A light of laughing flowers along the grass is shed. Shelley, 'Adonais' 'Lift me up, for I am dying. I shall die easy. Don't be frightened. Thank God, it has come,' said Keats to his friend Severn, on 23 February 1821 in an apartment at 21 Piazzadi Sp1loana, Rome. He died at the age of 26 years, 4 months after leaving England. Recognition as a major English poet came late that century. His terminal weeks of physical agony culminated years of anguish caused by an unfulfilled love affair, hostile criticism of his poetry and lack of money. He rests in the Protestant cemetery, a sylvan retreat just outside the old walls of Rome. Shelley (1818) thought 'it might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.' . Keats' gravestone is nameless. Severn had inscribed: 'This grave contains all that is mortal of a young English poet, who, on Department of Internal Medicine, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein H. DUBOVSKY, M.B. CH.B., D.P.H. Date received: 8 August 1980. Reprint requests to: Dr. H. Dubo"vsky, 32 Monawee, St Andrews Street. BloemtonteinJ 9301 RSA. his death-bed, in bitter anguish at the neglect of his countrymen, desired these words to be engraved on his tombstone: "Here lies one whose name is writ in water." , Joseph Severn, student painter and a year older than Keats, who took him to Rome and cared for him for 5 months, is buried beside him. He stayed on in Rome as a portrait painter and British consul to reach the age of 85. The Pisan circle At Pisa on the Tuscany coast north of Rome, the 3-years-older Shelley, unaware of Keats' arrival in Italy, wrote to Mrs Leigh Hunt on 11 November 1820: 'I am anxiously expecting him in Italy, when I shall take care to bestow every possible attention on him ... I am aware indeed ... that I am nourishing a rival who will far surpass me .. .' Shelley had left England 3 years before, also for medical reasons (episodes of cyclical depression) but mainly because of social problems. An eccentric and unconventional personality, he had been expelled from Oxford University for his pamphlet on atheism. The suicide by drowning of his first wife after he eloped with his second caused public opinion to turn against him. He left for Italy in May 1818. News of Keats' death reached Shelley in Pisa 2 months after the event. He shared the view of Keats' friends that hostile reviews caused his death. During June 1821 he wrote and had locally printed the elegy 'Adonais' of 55 stanzas: He has oursoared the shadow of our night, Envy and calumny and hate and pain, And rhar unresr which men miscall delighr, Can touch not and torture not again. He accused the reviewers in the preface of having 'wantonly defiled one of the noblest specimens of the workmanship of God'. Shelley considered 'Adonais', which reflects the philosophy that the world of reality is an illusion, his 'least imperfect poem'. Twenty-three months later Shelley's remains were to rest near those of his infant son William, referred to in my first quotation from' Adonais', and Keats in the Rome cemetery. The summer of 1822 found Shelley the centre of an exotic cosmopolitan group known as the Pisan circle. His readiness to help friends attracted another refugee from British convention, the dissolute poet Lord Byron, who became involved with Iralian and Greek members of the circle and with liberation movements of their countries. Edward Trelawney, author, adventurer, brigand and deserter from the British Navy, added colour to the circle as a devotee of Shelley. About to join them at Shelley's expense were the impoverished Leigh Hunt and his family. It was on the return journey by sea from Leghorn, where Shelley had gone to welcome them in his sailing boat the' Ariel' on 8 July 1822, that he was drowned, aged 29. Shelley had a passion for sailing and had set out despite local warnings of threatening weather. His decomposed body was washed up at Viareggio 10
Transcript of 1.14 HISTORY OF KEATS (1795 - 1821)
SA MEDICAL JOURNAL 6 JUNE 1981 875
History of Medicine
•patIentJohn Keats (1795-1821)and tuberculosis
- poet, physician
An association with Italy and the Battle of Cassino
H.DUBOVSKY
Summary
Keats trained as a physician at Guy's Hospital, butabandoned medicine for poetry. Progressivetuberculosis, a family disease, led him to Italy in thehope of a cure and to join Shelley and Byron at Pisa.He.died in Rome in an apartment overlooking theSpanish Steps. Since 1909 this has been a KeatsSheliey literary memorial. During World War 1I itsmost valuable manuscripts narrowly escapeddestruction during the bombardment of the Cassinomonastery, where they had been sent for safekeeping.
Abie to devote but 4 years of his short life solely topoetry, Keats achieved distinction as a majorEnglish poet known for his sensitivity and sensuousimagery.
S. Afr_ med. J., 59,875 (1981).
Go thou to Rome, - at once the Paradise,The grave, the city and the wilderness;And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise,And flowering weeds and fragrant copses dressThe bones of Desolation's nakednessPass, till the spirit of the spot shall leadThy footsteps to a slope of green accessWhere, like an infant's smile, over the deadA light of laughing flowers along the grass is shed.
Shelley, 'Adonais'
'Lift me up, for I am dying. I shall die easy. Don't be frightened.Thank God, it has come,' said Keats to his friend Severn, on 23February 1821 in an apartment at 21 Piazzadi Sp1loana, Rome. Hedied at the age of 26 years, 4 months after leaving England.Recognition as a major English poet came late that century. Histerminal weeks of physical agony culminated years of anguishcaused by an unfulfilled love affair, hostile criticism ofhis poetryand lack of money. He rests in the Protestant cemetery, a sylvanretreat just outside the old walls ofRome. Shelley (1818) thought'it might make one in love with death, to think that one should beburied in so sweet a place.' .
Keats' gravestone is nameless. Severn had inscribed: 'Thisgrave contains all that is mortal of a young English poet, who, on
Department of Internal Medicine, University of the OrangeFree State, BloemfonteinH. DUBOVSKY, M.B. CH.B., D.P.H.
Date received: 8 August 1980.Reprint requests to: Dr. H. Dubo"vsky, 32 Monawee, St Andrews Street. BloemtonteinJ 9301RSA.
his death-bed, in bitter anguish at the neglect of his countrymen,desired these words to be engraved on his tombstone: "Here liesone whose name is writ in water." , Joseph Severn, studentpainter and a year older than Keats, who took him to Rome andcared for him for 5 months, is buried beside him. He stayed on inRome as a portrait painter and British consul to reach the age of85.
The Pisan circle
At Pisa on the Tuscany coast north of Rome, the 3-years-olderShelley, unaware of Keats' arrival in Italy, wrote to Mrs LeighHunt on 11 November 1820: 'I am anxiously expecting him inItaly, when I shall take care to bestow every possible attention onhim ... I am aware indeed ... that I am nourishing a rival whowill far surpass me .. .' Shelley had left England 3 years before,also for medical reasons (episodes of cyclical depression) butmainly because of social problems. An eccentric andunconventional personality, he had been expelled from OxfordUniversity for his pamphlet on atheism. The suicide bydrowning of his first wife after he eloped with his second causedpublic opinion to turn against him. He left for Italy in May 1818.
News of Keats' death reached Shelley in Pisa 2 months afterthe event. He shared the view of Keats' friends that hostilereviews caused his death. During June 1821 he wrote and hadlocally printed the elegy 'Adonais' of 55 stanzas:
He has oursoared the shadow of our night,Envy and calumny and hate and pain,And rhar unresr which men miscall delighr,Can touch not and torture not again.
He accused the reviewers in the preface of having 'wantonlydefiled one of the noblest specimens of the workmanship ofGod'. Shelley considered 'Adonais', which reflects thephilosophy that the world of reality is an illusion, his 'leastimperfect poem'. Twenty-three months later Shelley's remainswere to rest near those of his infant son William, referred to in myfirst quotation from' Adonais', and Keats in the Rome cemetery.
The summer of 1822 found Shelley the centre of an exoticcosmopolitan group known as the Pisan circle. His readiness tohelp friends attracted another refugee from British convention,the dissolute poet Lord Byron, who became involved with I ralianand Greek members of the circle and with liberation movementsof their countries. Edward Trelawney, author, adventurer,brigand and deserter from the British Navy, added colour to thecircle as a devotee of Shelley. About to join them at Shelley'sexpense were the impoverished Leigh Hunt and his family. Itwas on the return journey by sea from Leghorn, where Shelleyhad gone to welcome them in his sailing boat the' Ariel' on 8 July1822, that he was drowned, aged 29. Shelley had a passion forsailing and had set out despite local warnings of threateningweather. His decomposed body was washed up at Viareggio 10
876 SA MEDIESE TYDSKRIF 6 JUNIE 1981
days later and was identified by volumes of the poems ofSophocles and Keats in the pockets. Trelawney, Byron and Huntgave the pyre a classical touch by adding salt, frankincense, oliveoil and wine to the gathering flames, and over his ashesTrelawney set the inspired quotation from Shakespeare's 'TheTempest':
Nothing of him that doth fadeBut doth suffer a sea-changeInto something rich and strange.
Shelley had written his major works during his 4 years in Italy.In a period of great poetry he wrote its best lyrical drama,'Prometheus Unbound', and its greatest tragedy, The 'Cenci'.'Epipsychidion' is considered the greatest poem on love in thelanguage. His 'Ode to the West Wind', 'To a Skylark' and 'TheCloud' are universally known.
At Shelley'S death the Pisan Circle broke up. Trelawneyaccompanied Byron to Greece in July 1823 to help the Greeks intheir war against the Turks, and Byron died there at 360fa fever.Like Shelley, Byron was a political liberalist, but unlike Shelley,who was an idealist and reformer of social evils, Byron had noprinciples of action. He was an unstable egoist, who despiteearlier acclaim for his poetry had public opinion turn againsthim because of his life of dissipation, and fled England as well. Amajor poet, whose works, of which 'Childe Harold' and 'DonJuan' are best known, reflect satire, passion and wit, Byron isburied near Newstead. In 1969 a memorial to him was placed onthe floor of Westminster Abbey.
Keats' life story
John Keats was the eldest of 4 children, for whom their father,the owner of a hostelry, provided a comfortable childhood. Hisearly death and the departure of the mother 2 months later toremarry, leaving the children to a grandmother's care, led to
permanent financial problems. Keats attended a humane andliberal private school at Enfield where reading was encouraged.His friendship with the headmaster's son, Charles CowdenClark, was fortuitous. They read the classics together, a practicecontinued while John was a medical student. Throughout onenight of October 1816 they went through a valuable borrowed1616 folio edition of George Chapman's translation of Homer.While walking back to his lodgings near Guy's Hospital in theearly hours of the morning, Keats expressed the excitement ofthe experience in a sonnet. He started writing 'On First ~ookinginto Chapman's Homer' at 6 a.m. and had it delivered to Clark by10 a.m. This poem, whole in concept and imagery, was his first toembody a fully free movement oforiginal creation. Clark showedit to Leigh Hunt, who published it in his journal, The Examiner.This acceptance encouraged Keats to abandon medicine and alsoadmitted him to the circle of writers and painters who met atHunt's house. Here he met Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron.
Keats had left school in 1810 at the age of 14 to commence anapprenticeship with a general practitioner. Earlier that summerhe had nursed his mother, who had returned to the family afterher unsuccessful second marriage, in her fatal tuberculosis. Oncompleting the apprenticeship of 5 years, Keats registered atGuy's Hospital as a 'medical pupil'. He had to attend hospitalpractice for 6 months before taking the licentiate examination ofthe Society of Apothecaries - he was examined in theTranslation of the PharIi:lacopoeia and Physicians' Prescriptions,The Theory and Practice of Medicine, Pharmaceutical Chemistry,and Materia Medica. Keats passed the examination the first yearit was held with a failure rate of 10%. He elected not to practisebut stayed on at Guy's for 18 months, intending to acquire thehigher qualification ofM.R.C.S. EvidenceofKeats' competencewas his early promotion to a dresser (junior houseman) in thefirm of Astley Cooper, the leading surgeon ofhis day. But Keats
John Keats, from a miniature by Joseph Severn accepted by the RoyalAcademy.
quit medicine in March 1817. He had been encouraged by theacceptance of several poems by Hunt in The Examiner, andparticularly by an fltticle describing him and Shelley as heraldinga new school of poetry. A fellow student states that Keats beganto affect a poetic type ofdress 'a la Byron' and that he had 'no ideaof Fame or Greatness, but as it was connected with the pursuits
. of Poetry ... and that the greatest men in the world are Poets, andto rank among them was the chief object of his ambition'.
At this stage Keats realized his unsuitability of temperamentto the performance of operative procedures, describing to afriend this 'inability due to an overwrought apprehension ofevery possible chance of doing evil in the wrong direction of theinstrument'. His last operation was a phlebotomy of the temporalvein. 'I did it with the utmost nicety; but reflecting on whatpassed through my mind at the time, my dexterity seemed amiracle and I never took up the lancet again.' •
Keats' illnessKeats' illness commenced in May 1818 with a bad cold and
sore throat which developed during a strenuous 6-week walkingtour of 642 miles (1 033 km) in Scotland with his friend Brown.The sore throat recurred over the following months,' but wasprobably a chronic tonsillitis and not tuberculous laryngitis sinceit followed a toothache and was absent at his death. Returninghome to find his brother Tom critically ill with tuberculosis, henursed him till death.
At that time hostile criticism of his first publication (1817)containing 'Endymion' and other poems appeared. Blackwood'sEdinburgh Magazine considered that he was 'only a boy ofprettyabilities, which he has done everything in his power to spoil', andpredicted that 'his bookseller would not a second time venture£50 upon anything he can write'. He was advised that 'it is better
to be a starved apothecary than a starved poet; so back to theshop, J\1r John, back to plasters, pills and ointment boxes'. Anyself-doubt of his ability was temporary, as he wrote to his brotherGeorge in America: 'I think I shall be among the English Poetsafter my death'. Another source of anguish was his engagementto Fanny Brawne in 1819: 'the Love which has so long been mypleasure and torment'. Lack of money and illness preventedmarriage to a superficial girl who did the social rounds whileKeats was ill.
His first haemoptysis occurred on 3 February 1820. Exposedto the cold on the outside of a coach from London, he arrived atHampstead sick and feverish. Calling on John Brown he wasimmediately put to bed. Brown related: 'On entering the coldsheets ... he slightly coughed, and I heard him say - "That isblood from my mouth." I went towards him, he was examining asingle drop of blood upon the sheet ... After regarding itsteadfastly, he looked up in my face ... and said - "I cannot bedeceived in that colour, - that drop of blood is my deathwarrant, - I must die." , He knew that an uncle had died ofruberculosis 11 months after the initial haemoptysis, his motherafter a year and his brother Tom after 11 months. Keats died 1year and 20 days after this episode.
He was treated by Dr G. Rodd, who prescribed a low diet andphlebotomies according to the 2 OOO-year-old humoral theory ofHippocrates, whereby irritating body fluids which cause diseaseare eliminated. Keats complained of weakness produced by thecurrently,acceptable treatment. Severe palpitations occurred on6 March. Dr Robert Bree, F.R.C.P., a specialist, was consulted.A pioneer of psychosomatic medicine, he found Keats to have'no pulmonary affectation, no organic defect whatsoever - thedisease is in his mind'. Venesections were stopped, and opium, afull diet and wine were ordered, which benefited the patientgreatly. This wrong diagnosis enabled Keats to complete hisfamous series of odes, 'Ode on Indolence', 'Ode onMelancholy", 'Ode to a Nightingale' and 'Ode on a GrecianUrn'. The collection is considered the best single publication(1820) of English verse. That year found Keats at the nadir of hisfortunes, with difficulty in obtaining funds from the trustees ofthe estate and doubts about his career as a poet. He consideredjournalism or a return to medicine. A depressive mood isreflected in these unpublished lines penned on the margin of amanuscript:
This living hand, now warm and capableOf earnest grasping, would, if it were coldand in the icy silence of the tomb,So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nightsThat thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of bloodSo in my veins red life might stream again,And thou be conscience calm'd - see here it is I hold it towards you.
Keats suffered a setback on 22 June 1820 when haemoptysiswas repeated. Dr Lambe's advice to leave for Italy was followedby a letter from Shelley:
My dear Keats,
I hear with great pain the dangerous accident that you haveundergone ... This consumption is a disease particularly fondof people who write good verses such as you have done, andwitli the assistance ofan English winter it can often indulge itsselection ...1 think you would do well to pass the winter inItaly as long as you find Pisa agreeable ro you. Mrs Shelleyunites with myself in urging this request.
Keats replied despairingly that 'if I do not take advantage ofyour invitation, it will be prevented by a circumstance that I havevery much at heart to prophesy. There is no doubt that anEnglish winter will put an end to me ... Therefore I mustjourney to Italy as a soldier marches to a battery.'
On his relapse Keats moved into Hunt's house and the circle
SA MEDICAL JOURNAL 6 JUNE 1981 an
decided that the cheerful srudent painter Joseph Severn shouldaccompany him to Rome, where Severn could also pursue hisstudies. An uncomfortable voyage of 34 days began on 17September 1820. Four passengers shared the single cabin of the127-ron 'Maria Crowther' with the captain; one was a young ladywith advanced ruberculosis, which deepened Keats' depression.He wrote to Brown: 'I wish for death every day and night ... Thethought ofleaving Miss Brawne is beyond something horrible ...Is there another life? Shall I wake up and find this a dream?There must be. We carmot be created for this sort of suffering.'
Over the last 2 weeks of the voyage a fever with recurrenthaemoptysis developed. Keats attempted suicide withlaudanum. They arrived in Rome on 15 November 1820, movinginto the apartment on the second floor at 21 Piazza di Spagna,arranged by Dr James Clark, who lived nearby. This culturedyoung physician, who was acquainted with Keats' poetry,proved a good friend ro his compatriots. Later, writing thesection on tubercular phthisis in the Cyclopedia of PracricalMedicine, he stated that 'did they (the relations) know thediscomforts, the exposure and the irritations attendant on a longjourney in an advanced state of consumption, they would shrinkfrom such a measure'. Clark confided to a colleague that 'thechief part of his (Keats') disease seems to be in the sromach'. Hewas surprised at the extent of lung disease post mortem.
During his first 7 weeks in Rome Keats improved and was ablero do some sightseeing, but haemoptysis occurred on 10December, with 5 episodes over 9 days. Repeated venesectionswere performed and a starvation diet was prescribed despite acraving for food. Severn had a difficult time, according to a letterof 17 December: '4 - morning - not a moment can I be awayfrom him ... I humour him in his wanderings ... Eight nightshave I been up, and in the days never move away from my patientbut to run over to the Doctor.' For 11 weeks Severn acted ashousekeeper, cook, nurse, entertainer (playing Haydn'ssymphonies on a piano), and, as a good Christian, religiouscomforter. The latter was difficult in view of Keats' freethinking. Over the latter half of December he became difficult romanage, pleading to be allowed to end his life with laudanum:'How long must my posthumous life continue?' By 26 January"1821, Severn reponed that 'His mind is bordering on the insane'with delusions of poisoning, but as his physical conditiondeteriorated he became mentally clear and found solace in hisbasic philosophy of losing one's identity in the "problems ofothers. His concern at the end was for Severn. 'Did you ever seeanyone die?' he asked. 'Well then I pity you, poor Severn ...Now you must be firm for it will not last long.' He cautioned hisfriend not to inhale his dying breaths.
The Keats-Shelley Memorial
Situated in the foreign quarter, 21 Piazza di Spagna becameknown as 'Keats house'. At the rurn of the century Axel Munthe l
the Swedish doctor and author of a biography which achievedimmense popularity conducted a winter practice from theapartment occupied by Keats, in order to finance the building ofhis Capri home on the ruins of one of Tiberius's villas.Compassion and high literary quality characterize his book,which devotes a few chapters to his experiences in Rome.
The Keats-Shelley Society formed in 1904 acquired thebuilding, and in 1909 opened the Keats apartment as a memorialto these two poets. This consists of relics, pictures, manuscriptsand a library of over 10000 volumes affording research materialwhich includes the other writers of the Pisan circle. One windowof Keats' corner room looks out on the Piazza and Bernini'sgalley-shaped fountain, the Barcaccia, built in 1627 tocommemorate the bloody fights of galleys in the flooded area ofRoman days. The other window looks out on the fine 18thcentury cataract of teps, the Scalinata, winding down a series of
878 SA MEDIESE TYDSKRIF 6 JUNIE 1981
The Piazza di Spagna, with Bernini's fountain and the lower part of theSpanish Steps. The arrow marks Keals' window at No. 21. (Taken fromRome by E. R. Chamberlain (1976), with permission from Time-LifeBooks.)
transverse terraces from the church of Santa Trinita dei Monteas the dominant feature in this architectural unity.
The Battle of Cassino
The entry of Italy into the war in 1940 created problems for theSociety. Its decision to send the most valuable part of thecollection for safekeeping to the monastery of Cassino wasironical. A constant teaching at the Military College of Italy wasthat the 520 m mountain on which the monastery is situated,jutting west as a 5 km spur from the Apennines and situatedmidway between Naples and Italy, formed the basis of an idealdefence to an advance up Italy. At its foot the highway fromRome is deflected through Cassino town to continue to Rome. Asuperb view of both valleys is obtained from the monastery. Thismassive trapezium-shaped structure situated on a historichighway was built as a fortress, having been destroyed 3 timesduring its 140o-year history - by the Lombards, by theSaracens and by an earthquake. Each wall was 370 m long, 46 mhigh and 3 m wide at its base.
It now suffered a fourth destruction. The Germans made thesite their 1943 winter defence line, evacuating the town and themonastery. The redoubtable Hermann Goering Division offeredto transport the valuable contents of the museum forsafe-keeping. For centuries before the advent of printing, itsmonks had copied and distributed to the still barbaric Westreligious and classical works such as those of Cicero, Horace andOvid, of which they had the originals. From 16 October 1943, fora period of 10 days, German convoys conveyed the collectionnorthwards. The 2 boxes containing the Keats-Shelley collectionhad been kept in the cell of the chief archivist, Don MauroInguanez. He took them disguised as his personal baggage in aGerman vehicle to 21 Piazza di Spagna.
The Battle of Cassino started inJanuary 1944, lasted 5 monthsand was the hardest of.the Italian campaign. The ulimate goal ofthe Allies was to take the monas'tery to deny the enemyobservation facilities and its possible occupation in a last stand.After initial reverses the Allies reduced the monastery to ruinswith 575 tons of special block-buster bombs from 254 aircraftthroughout the day of 15 February 1944.
The philosophy and poetry of Keats
Despite devoting only 4 years solely to poetry, Keats achievedthe status of a major poet with Shelley and Byron. They wereI?ioneers of the Romantic movement, led by the older
Wordsworth, departing from classical legend and fixed metre inverse to write about nature and everyday things. Here Keatsdisplayed an extraordinary sensitivity to the impression of themoment. He did, however, make use of classical legend toexpress a philosophy, as in 'Hyperion'; tJ;te poet must interpretand be in sympathy with human sufferifJ.g:
The poet and the dreamer are distinctDiverse, sheer, opposite antipodes.The one pours out a balm upon the world,The other vexes it.
His letters 2 reflect his philosophy. The poet should becolourless and like 'a camelion (sic) poet', take on the character ofeverything he observes, losing his identity in the problems ofothers. He regards life as a 'vale of soul-making' where 'thefunction of a world of pains and troubles' is 'to school anintelligence and make it a soul', and cautions again.st theexpectation of happiness: 'I look not for it if it be not in the
. present hour - nothing startles me beyond the moment. Thesetting sun wjll always set me to rights .. .' .
An element of mysticism is found in his 'Negative Capability(when) a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries,doubts, without any irritable reading after fact and reason'.Limiting attention to works of quality enables one, like a spider,to 'be content with as few points to tip with the fme web of hissoul and weave a tapestty empyrean-full of symbols for hisspiritual eye, of softness for his spiritual touch .. .'
Keats had a philosophy of beauty which, according to Evans,''no artist in our age, or pictorial artist, has faith or courage tomaintain'.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:Its loveliness increases; it will neverPass into nothingness ...
'Endymion'
'Beauty is truth, ttljth beauty' - that is allYe know on earth, and all ye need to know.
'Ode on a Grecian Urn'
In a letter Keats stated: 'I am certain of nothing but theholiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth'. His bestknown works, the Odes written in May 1819, reflect his vividimagery and sensuous appeal and a pictorial impression ofobjects and situations.
John Bailey4 calls Keats the 'poet of stillness' in his "love ofquietness, passiveness, silent places and gentle things'. Thiscontrasts with his suffering, aggravated by the inadequacies ofcurrent medical treatment. It is ironical that a writer oftranquillity should have his collection associated with themassive destruction of an old cultural centre, the monastery ofCassino. Keats was unable to rejoin Shelley and Byron at Pisa,but they shared poetic geriius and tragic deaths within 3 years inMediterranean lands. .
REFERENCES
l. Munthe, A. (1929): The SlOry of San Michele. London: John Murray.2. Lord Houghron (1848): The Life and Le/lers of John Kea/s. London:
Everyman's Library. .3. Lord Evans of Hungershall (1969): Brit. med. J., 3, 7.4. The Keats' House Comminee, Hampstead (1921): The John Kea/s Memorial
Volume, p. 30. London: John Lane.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gittings, R. (1968): John Keacs. London: Heinemann.Bate, W. J. (1967): John Kea/s. London: Oxford University Press.Rogers, N. (1949): Keacs, Shelley and Rome. London: Johnson.Fuller, J. O. (1969): Shelley. London: Jonathan Cape.Ma)dalany, F. (1973): The Baccle of Cassino. London: ';J;'hite Lion.
