Book Details

First Sentence

"On 5 May 1816 John Keats opened the Examiner and saw that his first poem had been published. A year before his death he suffered the haemorrhage which he recognised as his 'death warrant' and after which he wrote scarcely any poetry. In the four years between these events he became one of the greatest of English poets. This is the simple statement of something almost miraculous, and the task of someone with the temerity to approach Keats critically, is to face this miracle. Our interest in Keats the man is provoked by his poetry and any systematic approach at biography is carried through only in the hope of a return to the poems."