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John Keats (1795–1821) had one of the most remarkable—and remarkably brief—careers in the history of English poetry. The first of five children, Keats lost his father at the age of eight. When his mother died six years later, Keats came under the care of a man who forced his new ward into the medical profession. But upon completing his studies, Keats promptly abandoned medical practice and, at the age of eighteen, committed himself wholeheartedly to poetry. After several years of mediocre output, he composed “Sleep and Poetry” (1816), in which he outlined a ten-year program of poetic self-development. He followed this program with extraordinary fastidiousness, beginning with an epic poem called Hyperion, which he soon abandoned for another work, Endymion, which appeared in 1818. Soon after, as his health began suddenly to decline, Keats entered the peak of his short poetic career. In 1819 he produced most of the masterpieces for which he remains known today, including the six odes as well as poems like “The Eve of St. Agnes” and “La Belle Dame sans Merci.” Many critics today consider Keats one of the finest poets in the English language, with a virtually unmatched capacity for rich description and evocative paradox.

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