Poetical Works

Poetical Works Synopsis

Excerpt from Poetical Works: Edited, With a Critical Memoir

John Keats was born on the 29th of October, 1795. His maternal grandfather, of the name of Jennings, was the proprietor of a large livery stable in Moorfields, and his father, the head servant, who had married his master's daughter, after the fashion of Hogarth's honest apprentice, was killed by a fall from his horse in 1804, leaving his widow with three boys and one girl, and with sufficient means to give them a good education. Of these John was the eldest, George the next, and Thomas the youngest. The daughter Fanny was much younger. John re sembled his father in features and stature, while the two brothers were more like their mother, who was tall, and had a large oval face and a somewhat saturnine demeanor. She must, how ever, have inspired her children with affection, for, on an occasion of illness, John, when between four and five years old, placed himself as a senti nel at her door, with an old sword he had picked up, and remained there for hours, that she might not be disturbed; and at her death, which occurred when he was at school, he hid himself for several days in a nook under the master's desk, passion ately inconsolable.

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