The Great Romantic: John Keats

How many of you out there try to court the opposite gender with something romantic? Why not quote a poem written by a great romance poet, John Keats.

Born in 1795 on October 31, Keats was the eldest of four children (one dying in infancy). He was born in central London, but there is no clear evidence of where exactly. At the age of eight, Keats was sent to the Clark school in Enfield Town of North London. Around that same time, Keats' father died of a skull fracture from falling off of a horse. His mother took her children to with her mother-in-law. But not soon after, Keats' mother also passed away.

When Keats was 21 years old, he was betrothed to Frances "Fanny" Brawne who at the time, was 18. He started composing romantic poems to send to her. At another time, Keats was also involved with Isabella Jones. A poem by Keats is called "Bright Star" :

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art-

Not in lone splendour hung alot the night

and watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like Nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at this priestlike task

Of pure abulation round earth's human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-

No - yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender taken breath,

And so live ever - or else swoon to death.

The poem above was composed for Isabella Jones.

In 1820, Keats started showing signs of tuberculosis and lung haemorrhages. He passed away on Febrauary 23, 1821.