Personal Life
Why was Keats pulled out of Enfield Academy and who pulled him out?
He was pulled out to study to be a surgeon and he was pulled out by his guardian
What was his first published work?
Poems by John Keats
What does Keats mean by “Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain?”
Keats is opening the poem by talking about how he fears dying before being able to finish all his thoughts: before his pen has been able to communicate what is going on in his brain
Who does Keats seem to be talking about?
A woman who he desires to be with, but it doesn’t seem as though she has the same desire.
Interpret a “Sylvan historian who canst thus express a flowery tale more than our rhyme”
No one, no matter the scholar, can question the strength of the couple’s love (One of the main romantic ideals)
Why was he never able to get married?
He was poor and was in poor health
What Greek myth was his second published work based off of?
Endymion
What is Keats trying to communicate through the poem?
His absolute complete fear of dying young
“You say you love; but with a voice Chaster than a nun’s” How can this sentence be interpreted?
The woman doesn’t show her love for Keats, only says it, but she seems unpassionate and reserved. There seems to be no sexual/romantic activities between them.
“A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme: What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape” What romantic element is present?
Nature
What was an inherited illness in his family?
Tuberculosis
What two popular magazines wrote poor reviews of Endymion?
Quarterly Review and Blackwood’s Magazine
What is the main tone of the poem?
Fear
What does Keats desire from this woman?
He desires for her to touch him, to smile at him, kiss him, and show that she loves him with actions.
What was one of Keats’s main beliefs about love?
Quiet/private love is more intimate than public love.
How old was he when he died?
25 years old
What was the style of his book, The Fall of Hyperion?
Miltonic blank verse epic (influenced by the poet, John Milton famous for writing in blank verse (a form of poetry written with no rhyme scheme but still containing a regular meter)
What part of dying is the part that Keats fears the most (according to the poem)?
The lack of control and the fear of dying before he has reached all his goals
Out of these romantic qualities (sublime, nature, supernatural, beauty, love) what is missing from this poem ?
There are no supernatural references
Why did Keats’s reference nature so much in this poem?
He finds beauty in nature, and wants to surround himself and his lover in that sublime beauty.
What did he do after college? Did he use it?
He studied to be a surgeon, but never practiced it and became a writer
What event occurred in his life that caused him to pause in the middle of writing The Fall of Hyperion?
The death of his brother
Why does Keats have such a fear of dying young, particularly from tuberculosis?
Due to seeing his mother and brother die of tuberculosis
What is the overall theme of this poem?
Expressing frustrations for a one sided relationship where one partner shows way more love than the other person.
Interpret “Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu”
The woman’s joy and the love for her can never be taken away from the couple.