John Keats
Date of birth: 1795 — Date of death: 1821
Poet. Son of Thomas and Frances Keats. Keats' mother and father both died when he was young. He studied at Rev. John Clarke's School in Enfield and left to become an apprentice to a surgeon. Keats early poetry attracted criticism, with many reviewers drawing attention to his 'lowly' origins. The beauty of description and themes such as rebellion against patriarchal authority in his later work, however, resulted in admiration from Pre-Raphaelite artists such as William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) and John Everett Millais (1829-1896). Keats died when he was 25, following a series of haemorrhages.