KEATS, JOHN, was born in Moorficlds, London, in the year 179(3. He received n classical education at Enfield, under Mr. Clarke, and maa afterwards apprenticed to a surgeon. Mr. Clarke introduced rim to Mr. Leigh Hunt, who brought him before the public. In 1817 le published a volume containing his juvenile poems, and shortly afterwards his long poem Endyinion; which called forth a violent Mack from the Quarterly Review.' Keats was of a remarkably ensitive disposition : his constitution was weak, and greatly impaired )y the attentions which he bestowed on a dying brother, and his death has been attributed, though erroneonsly, to the shock which In received from the article in the Quarterly.' To recover his health, Keats travelled to Rome, where he died on the 24th of February 1821, having previously published a third volume of poems, containing Lamina," Isabella," The Eve of St. Agnes,' and Hyperion.' The poetry of Keats is of an exceedingly rich and luxuriant charac ter, and his writings are so crowded with images, that it at last becomes almost fatiguing to apprehend them. It seems as if his imagination were of that volatile nature which must start off to every idea associated with his subject, and embody it as a part of the whole. Hence the reader mast put himself in the place of the poet, and allow his own imagination to fly from thought to thought, or the work will seem but a compound of wild unconnected pictures. The article in the 'Quarterly' observed, that he introduced many images merely for the sake of rhyme, and this remark is not wholly unjust. lie did not
however like many poets, merely write some common-place epithet or sentence for the sake of rhyme; but it seems as if his imagination was so fertile, that a chiming word brought with it a new image suitable to his purpose. Some have thought that time would have matured his judgment and have improved him, but this is doubtful ; the wild transition from thought to thought is the essence of his poetry, and not a mere accident, and a cool inquiry into the aptness or connection of his images would rather have injured him as a poet than have been of advantage.
In the sublime Keats is not so happy as in the wildly beautiful. In the fragment ' Hyperion,' despite its richness and wild luxuriance, where we miss the exuberance, we also miss the brilliant fancies of the Endymion,' while at the same time the attempt at sublimity is rather an incumbrance. It may in fact be said that the works of Keats are adapted chiefly to those who are really of a poetical temperament, and who have an imagination capable of following if not of creating ; and to such they are highly stimulating and suggestive, as well as eminently delightful. To the readers who look for poetry as a pleasant form of some clear and connected subject, who prefer authors that rather anticipate their imagination than call it into violent action, Kent's poems will be of comparatively little value.