Public domain photo of John Keats

John Keats (1795-1821)

A selective list of articles on the English Romantic poet John Keats, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the MLA Guidelines for Authors of Web Sites.

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Literary Criticism

"'Ode on a Grecian Urn': Hypercanonicity & Pedagogy." Ed. James O'Rourke. Romantic Circles, Oct. 2003. 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."

Firbank, P.N. A review of Allusion to the Poets, by Christopher Ricks [Keats. Dryden, Pope, Burns, Wordsworth, Byron, and 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." Romanticism on the Net 24 (2001). How early nineteenth century ideas of evolution, associated with geology and paleontology, influenced the writing of Keats and other romantics.

Kimberly, Caroline E. "Effeminacy, Masculinity, and Homosocial Bonds: The (Un)Intentional Queering of John Keats." Romanticism on the Net 36-37 (2004-2005). 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."

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

Ricks, Christopher. Publisher's blurb for Keats and Embarrassment. Oxford UP, 1984.

Sandy, Mark. "Dream Lovers and Tragic Romance: Negative Fictions in Keats's Lamia, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Isabella." Romanticism on the Net 20 (2000). 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.

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

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

Introduction

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.

"John Keats." Academy of American Poets. A brief biography and introduction to Keats.

Selections from Keats's Letters (1817). Poetry Foundation. Ed. Catherine Halley.

"John Keats." Ed. Lilia Melani. Professor's web site.

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

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.

The Wordworth Circle. Ed. Marilyn Gaull. Information about subscribing.

"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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