John Keats - Life

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Timeline

October 3,1 1795 - Birth of John keats

November 1, 1802 - John’s brother dies

August 22, 1803 - John starts school

April 15, 1804 - John’s dad dies

March 8, 1805 - John’s grandfather dies

September 13, 1805 - John’s mother abandons them for three and a half years, this causes him to suffer from anxiety

November 13, 1809 - Mother returns but she is ill

May 1, 1810 - John’s mother dies

August 22, 1811 - John and his brother move in together

October 27, 1811 - John goes to college

December 18, 1811 - John left college

October 11, 1812 - John writes his poem

October 11, 1816 - John becomes serious about poetry

December 14, 1816 - John abandons his medical career

May 7, 1817 - John publishes his first book

August 10, 1817- John falls in love with Fanny

July 5, 1818 - John goes on a walking tour

December 1, 1818 - John’s brother dies

June 15, 1819 - Moves into Fanny’s house

January 11, 1820 - John goes over to Italy

February 3, 1820 - John gets tuberculosis

July 5, 1820 - John’s final poems were published

February 23, 1821 - John dies

John and Fanny

Fanny Brawne and John Keats both had rooms rented in the same boardhouse in Hampstead. Fanny with her family: Her mother, Frances, her brother Samuel, and her sister, Margaret, and John with his friend Charles Brown, a lifelong friend. After meeting Fanny in 1818 when her family moved in, the two did not interact, and Fanny did not care much for his earlier poems.

When Tom Keats (John’s brother) died of Tuberculosis, Fanny was able to be there for Keats, understanding and consoling the situation. She reportedly ‘encouraged his love of life by her obvious interest in him’, leading him to mention Fanny twice in a letter to his brother George, not long after Tom’s death.

On October 18th, John Keats proposed to Fanny Brawne. However, the engagement was unofficial, with both individuals knowing that Fanny’s mother would not approve. It was not that she outright objected to a marriage between the two, but she didn’t want to give legal consent until she thought they were economically stable themselves.

As Keats was rather unwell, Fanny attended a lot of army parties alone, making him extremely anxious and jealous. This caused one of the most progressive periods of his life poetry-wise in May, before he left for the Isle of Wight in June. The couple’s correspondence at this time was extremely anxious and emotional, neither party coping well with the distance.

Despite the lack of closeness of their relationship after Keats’ major health problems in the recent months Keats was reluctant to move to Italy as the doctor had suggested. He returned to Wentworth for the last time on August 10th 1820, where Fanny’s mother claimed that the two could marry when Keats returned and was healed.

They exchanged gifts, and then on September 13th, 1820, John Keats left England forever, moving to Rome. As the letters came in, Fanny could see the hope of Keats recovering dissipating, telling Frances Keats ‘All I do is to persuade myself, I shall never see him again.’.