Public domain photo of John Keats

John Keats (1795-1821)

A selective list of online literary criticism for the nineteenth-century Romantic poet John Keats, with links to reliable biographical and introductory material and signed, peer-reviewed, and scholarly literary criticism.

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Introduction & Biography

"John Keats." A brief biography and introduction to Keats, with text for some of his most famous poems. Academy of American Poets. .

"Ekphrasis: Poetry Confronting Art," includes links "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and to other poems about art. Academy of American Poets.

"Poet's Corner - John Keats." A short biography from educational publisher Gale/Cengage.

"John Keats." An introduction to John Keats, with brief mention of approaches and modern editions, from educational publisher Pearson/Longman.

"John Keats." Ed. Lilia Melani. An Overview; Keats and Romanticism; Themes in Keats's Major Poems; Keats's Odes's; Keats's Imagery; Paintings and Illustrations of Keats's Poems; and more. Professor's web site.

"The Keats-Shelley House." The house in Rome where Keats spent the last months of his life, now a museum.

Wootton, Sarah. "John Keats." 28 Aug., 2002. Literary Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott, Janet Todd. An introduction to Keats, from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field, and is available to individuals for a reasonably-priced subscription [subscription service].

Literary Criticism

"'Ode on a Grecian Urn': Hypercanonicity & Pedagogy." Ed. James O'Rourke. Twelve papers by college professors, who describe how they teach "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Says O'Rourke, "The essays here suggest that the canon, and American college students, have never been in better or more solicitous hands." Romantic Circles, Oct. 2003.

Firbank, P.N. A review of Allusion to the Poets by Christopher Ricks [and Keats, Dryden, Pope, Burns, Wordsworth, Byron, Tennyson.] Threepenny Review (2003).

Gigante, Denise. "The Endgame of Taste: Keats, Sartre, Beckett." Romanticism on the Net 24 (2001).

Kenyon Jones, Christine. "'When this world shall be former': Catastrophism as imaginative theory for the younger Romantics." How early nineteenth century ideas of evolution, associated with geology and paleontology, influenced the writing of Keats and other romantics. Romanticism on the Net 24 (2001).

Kimberly, Caroline E. "Effeminacy, Masculinity, and Homosocial Bonds: The (Un)Intentional Queering of John Keats." On the development of Keats's reputation among Victorian writers. "By closely examining the publications and private correspondence of the Keats Circle during the 1820s and 1830s, one can see various patterns to the biographical development of Keats, particularly in relation to their subject's masculinity. From the widespread eulogies immediately following the poet's death, to Hunt's 1828 biographical sketch in Lord Byron and Some of His Contemporaries, to Brown's 1836 biography manuscript, threads are spun simultaneously of Keats as icon of middle-class masculinity, perpetually youthful Aesthetic ideal, and object of queered desire." Romanticism on the Net 36-37 (2004-2005).

Kucich, Greg. "'The Wit in the Dungeon': Leigh Hunt and the Insolent Politics of Cockney Coteries." Romanticism on the Net 14 (1999).

Miller, Andrew J. A review of Coming of Age as a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath by Helen Vendler. Romanticism on the Net 32-33 (2003-2004).

Mizukoshi, Ayumi. "The Cockney Politics of Gender -- the Cases of Hunt and Keats." Mizukoshi discusses upward mobility, liberal and middle-class values, and the idea of the gentleman in the cases of Leigh Hunt and John Keats. Romanticism on the Net 14 (1999).

Sandy, Mark. "Dream Lovers and Tragic Romance: Negative Fictions in Keats's Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Isabella." Sandy contends that the Romantic poets revived the traditions of the romance world, affirming their own beliefs in the dualities of innocence and experience, life and death, surface and depth, and the ideal and the real. For Keats these relations are often portrayed as an auto-erotic journey that indicates the risks of confusing fiction and fact. Romanticism on the Net 20 (2000).

Steyaert, Kris. "Poetry as Enforcement: Conquering the Muse in Keats's 'Ode to Psyche.'" Steyaert says that critics have often characterized Keats's writing as effeminate, but fail to discern the "masculine" undercurrent in his poems. Romanticism on the Net 1 (1996).

Turley, Richard Marggraf. "'Full-grown lambs': Immaturity and 'To Autumn.'" Turley discusses Keats's frequently derided immaturity, and whether the poet had at last "grown up" in the "Ode to Autumn." Romanticism on the Net 28 (2002).

Web Sites & Texts

Romanticism on the Net. Ed. Michael Eberle-Sinatra. An international, peer-reviewed electronic journal devoted to British Romantic studies, an impressive scholarly enterprise that has been making essays freely available since 1996.

Romantic Circles. Eds. Neil Fraistat, Steven E. Jones, and Carl Stahmer. "A refereed scholarly web site devoted to the study of Romantic-period literature and culture." An innovative publication on topics in Romanticism.

"A Romantic Natural History." Ed. Ashton Nichols. The relationships between literary works and natural history in the century before Darwin, with articles on Keats and other Romantics.

Endymion. Taylor and Hessey, 1818. First edition online through Google Books; provides page images of the entire edition, and searchable.

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