A Tale of Two Autumns, Keats House

The curators of John Keats's one time home in Hampstead do a fantastic job, not only of running general exhibitions in the house, but also putting on interesting events throughout their open season. Their programme includes family orientated activities, creative workshops and poetry readings such as this autumnal one. A Tale of Two Autumns will explore the personal and professional lives of John Keats fellow Romantic poet Percy Shelley, including their developing friendship, during the years 1819 and 1820, and the evening promises to be informative as well as moving. 

Keats 

John Keats was born in 1795 and died, tragically young, at the age of 21. He studied in his youth to become an apothecary surgeon, but surrendered his training in order to focus solely on his burgeoning poetic talent. His decision was a financial blow to his family, but ended up being a true benefit to the English cultural landscape. The poetry Keats produced in his short lifetime became a cornerstone of the Romantic movement along with his peers, Byron and Shelley. His legacy has made him one of the most beloved English poets, most famous for his beautiful Odes. 

Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was Keats’s contemporary, similarly achieving little recognition during his short lifetime but nowadays remembered as one of the classic Romantic poets. Shelley had a tempestuous relationship with his wife Harriet, having ill-advisedly wed her at the tender age of 19, and instigated numerous affairs with adolescent girls during his marriage before she committed suicide in 1816. Weeks later, Shelley married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin weeks and the pair met Keats as part of the literary circle that surrounded Leigh Hunt. Between 1818 and 1822, Shelley lived in various Italian cities, inviting Keats to join him in Pisa after hearing of his worsening tuberculosis. Keats’s untimely death in 1821 prompted his friend to write the pastoral elegy Adonaïs in memory of him. Shelley clearly held Keats in the highest regard, as a pocketbook of his poetry was found on Shelley's drowned body only a year later.