John Keats (1795-1821) is one of the greatest poets in the English language, and one of the most famous Romantic poets. In just a few years prior to his untimely death from tuberculosis, aged just 25, in 1821, Keats wrote some of the most memorable poems about everything from art to autumn to melancholy to sleep and much else in between.
John Keats
A Summary and Analysis of John Keats’s ‘To Hope’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Written in February 1815 when he was just nineteen years old, ‘To Hope’ is one of John Keats’s early poems. Although it is not as celebrated or as polished as his more mature work, the poem is worth sharing, so below we reproduce the text of the poem, and offer a few words of analysis.
A Summary and Analysis of John Keats’s ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is one of the best-known and most widely analysed poems by John Keats (1795-1821); it is also, perhaps, the most famous of his five Odes which he composed in 1819, although ‘To Autumn’ gives it a run for its money. The best way to analyse ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’ is by going through the poem with a stanza-by-stanza summary; as we go, we’ll offer an analysis of some of the most important features of ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’.
A Summary and Analysis of John Keats’s ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ (‘the beautiful lady without mercy’) is one of John Keats’s best-loved and most widely anthologised poems; after his odes, it may well be his most famous. But is this poem with its French title a mere piece of pseudo-medieval escapism, summoning the world of chivalrous knights and beautiful but bewitching women, or does it have a deeper meaning?
You can read ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ here before proceeding to our summary below (it might be helpful to have the poem open in a separate tab so you can follow the poem and summary together).
A Summary and Analysis of John Keats’s ‘Ode to a Nightingale’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ is one of a series of odes the Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) wrote, and one of the most famous. Before we offer a brief summary of Keats’s poem, it might be helpful to read ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ here in a separate tab, and follow the poem and our analysis alongside each other.