Poets Biography- John Keats, Romantic Poet

John Keats Poets Biography

John Keats was born in October 31st 1795 (it was considered most probable to be the 31st as Keats never admitted his date of birth; he hated celebrating it each year) in London. He was the son of Thomas Keats, a livery worker, and Frances Jennings Keats, the eldest of four children. The story of how Keats' parents got together is an interesting one for it is believed that Frances Jennings eloped with Thomas Keats. She was the daughter of Thomas Keats' employer and they ran away; luckily her parents had a forgivable nature and accepted the marriage and let John Keats keep his job as a livery worker.

Family life was quite normal; the Keats had three more sons George, Thomas and Edward (who died in infancy) and one daughter called Frances. In 1803 Keats went away to a school in Enfield called John Clarke's. In 1804 his father was killed in a work related accident; he fell from a horse. Two months after her husband's death, Frances Keats remarried a London bank clerk called William Rawlings, although this action she quickly regretted and left taking nothing with her because by law everything now belonged to her new husband; even her children. Luckily for the Keats children their grandmother (Frances mother) took custody of the children but was unable to save any of the family's property as it now belonged to Rawlings, Rawlings sold the property quickly and disappeared soon after. At this stage in his life John had only experienced the tip of the iceberg that was to become is tragic life. John began to act out and was continuously involved in fistfights which he rarely lost even though he was rather small for his age.