Letter shines light on short-lived romantic poet, Keats

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever." That's a line from 'Endymion', a poem by English romantic poet John Keats, first published in 1818. Branded a 'cockney poet' during his lifetime, Keats's posthumous influence on poetry and particularly his romantic writing has been significant. Now, he's considered one of the principal poets of the English Romantic Movement along with Lord (George) Byron and Percy Shelley. But like many of his friends and family members, Keats's life was tragic and short lived. He died from tuberculosis at the age of just 25 in 1821. It means much of his work has become treasured by literary experts and fans of the romantic movement. Now, this short letter written by Keats to his friend Horace Smith in 1818 is giving fans of the poet a treasured glimpse into his life. While Keats was loved for his poetry, he is also considered a great letter writer and this simple note - telling Smith he was unable to meet because he was visiting his brothers Tom and George - still has the ability to get experts excited. "It's his original handwriting, so the writing in which he would have written some of his greatest letters and some of the greatest poems that we have in the English language," says Interpretation Officer at Keats House, Sofie Davis. "But also, this letter is one of the earliest that we have in our collection and it tells us lots of things that were happening in the young poets life at the time that he was writing." At the time of writing, 22-year-old Keats had abandoned a career in medicine to become a poet and was in the process of making friends with other writers who would later go on to influence his work. Keats's trip to see his family would ultimately end in tragedy as his brother, Tom, would later die from tuberculosis - the same illness which later claimed Keats. Davis says the short length of Keats's life makes glimpses such as this invaluable. "You could say that almost every moment of Keats's life was important, partly because he died so young, but also because tragedy was never very far away from Keats throughout his life," she says. "He lost his parents when he was young and he also lost his younger brother and these really influence the writing that we see from Keats. And so, there are very few times where he's free from either this tragedy that come with losing loved ones or with the joys of falling in love and this all played out in a very short amount of time for Keats." Here at Keats House, or Wentworth Place as it was originally known, John Keats spent under two years of his life before travelling to Italy where he died and is buried. But it's these surroundings in London that inspired some of the poet's most memorable work, including 'Ode to a Nightingale' - a piece written while sitting under a plum tree in the gardens. It's also here that Keats fell deeply for the love of his life Frances (Fanny) Brawne - a young neighbour. Information Officer at Keats House, Grace Blackman, says there couldn't be a more important place for the poet: "Most of his work was written in a very short space of time when he was twenty-three and it's his twenty-third year that he spends here," she says. "And it's here that he falls in love with Fanny Brawne, the love of his life, and he writes most of the major, most of the odes apart from 'To Autumn' here and the odes are really significant in the Keats canon." Throughout this house, there are numerous locations which influenced the poet's work. Keats describes in one of his letters how while he was in the early stages of tuberculosis a sofa bed had been installed for him in this parlour. It's said that from here the poet gazed out across the house's gardens and at Fanny Brawne. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/c2fa3840b1dd8cca9fc3c1062f519c80 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork