John Keats

LitCharts guides for works by John Keats

Explore LitCharts poetry guides for works by John Keats. Each guide offers line-by-line analysis, exploration of poetic devices, and helpful resources for studying John Keats's poetry.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever (from Endymion)

This guide explores the first stanzas of the English Romantic poet John Keats's book-length poem Endymion (1818). Beginning with words so famous that they've become proverbial—"A thing of beauty is... view guide

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art

“Bright Star” is a sonnet by the British Romantic poet John Keats. Written in 1818 or 1819, the poem is a passionate declaration of undying, constant love. The speaker wants to be “stedfast”—consta... view guide

In drear nighted December

"In drear nighted December" is an early work by the English Romantic poet John Keats. The poem's speaker looks at an icy midwinter landscape with envy. Though the trees and waters are frozen stiff,... view guide

Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil

Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil is the English Romantic poet John Keats's retelling of a grisly tale from Boccaccio's Decameron. This narrative poem tells the story of Isabella and Lorenzo, a pair o... view guide

La Belle Dame sans Merci

“La Belle Dame sans Merci” is a ballad by John Keats, one of the most studied and highly regarded English Romantic poets. In the poem, a medieval knight recounts a fanciful romp in the countryside ... view guide

Lamia

"Lamia" is the English Romantic poet John Keats's lush, eerie tale of enchantment defeated by merciless rationality. Set in the world of ancient Greco-Roman myth, the poem tells the story of the se... view guide

O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell

The sonnet "O Solitude! if I must with thee dwell" is the first work that the great Romantic poet John Keats published. It appeared in Leigh Hunt's weekly Examiner in 1816, when Keats was not yet 2... view guide

Ode on a Grecian Urn

"Ode on a Grecian Urn" was written by the influential English poet John Keats in 1819. It is a complex, mysterious poem with a disarmingly simple set-up: an undefined speaker looks at a Grecian urn... view guide

Ode on Indolence

"Ode on Indolence" is (probably) one of the earliest of John Keats's great Odes, a sequence of six poems he composed between the spring and autumn of 1819. In this poem, a speaker (who has more tha... view guide

Ode on Melancholy

"Ode on Melancholy" was written by the British Romantic poet John Keats. It is one of the five odes Keats composed in 1819, which are considered to be among his best work. Essentially the poem is a... view guide

Ode to a Nightingale

"Ode to a Nightingale" was written by the Romantic poet John Keats in the spring of 1819. At 80 lines, it is the longest of Keats's odes (which include poems like "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode on... view guide

Ode to Psyche

"Ode to Psyche," one of the earliest of Keats's famous odes, was published in 1820, appearing in his final collection, Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. In the poem, a wanderi... view guide

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" is a sonnet written by English poet John Keats when he was just 20 years old. Essentially, it is a poem about poetry itself, describing a reading experience ... view guide

On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

"On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" is the English poet John Keats's reflection on art and mortality. In this sonnet, a speaker feels both awestruck and mournful at the sight of the Elgin Marbles, the gr... view guide

On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again

"On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again" is a sonnet about the power, pain, and challenge of great art. Getting ready to reread Shakespeare's King Lear for the umpteenth time, the poem's spea... view guide

On the Grasshopper and Cricket

The English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) wrote "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" during an 1816 sonnet competition with his friend Leigh Hunt; he published the poem in his first collection, ... view guide

On the Sea

John Keats wrote "On the Sea" while he was taking a holiday on the Isle of Wight in 1817. His friend John Reynolds submitted it to a London newspaper, The Champion, on his behalf; the paper publish... view guide

The Eve of St. Agnes

"The Eve of St. Agnes"—first published in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems (1820)—is Romantic poet John Keats's tale of passion, legends, danger, and dreams. In this narrative... view guide

The Human Seasons

"The Human Seasons" is English Romantic poet John Keats's reflection on the shape of a human life. Like each year, this poem suggests, each life has four seasons: the spring of childhood, the summe... view guide

This living hand, now warm and capable

"This living hand, now warm and capable" is an untitled fragment composed by John Keats (1795-1821) as he was dying of tuberculosis. Written in December 1819, in the margin of another poem he was w... view guide

To Autumn

"To Autumn" is an ode by the English Romantic poet John Keats written in 1819. It is the last of his six odes (which include "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn"), which are some of th... view guide

To Sleep

In John Keats's sonnet "To Sleep," a speaker fervently prays to the personified figure of Sleep itself, begging for Sleep to bestow blissful unconsciousness on them—and quickly, before all the spea... view guide

When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be

"When I have Fears That I May Cease to be" is an Elizabethan (a.k.a. Shakespearean) sonnet written by John Keats in 1818, although it wasn't published until 1848, which was twenty-seven years after... view guide