Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
John Keats was born on Halloween – October 31, 1795. (Source)
John Keats died in Rome. He had gone there to recover from bad health – he suffered from tuberculosis. Unfortunately, the disease got the better of him. He is buried there in the Protestant cemetery. (Source)
For many years, readers, critics, and scholars believed that "Bright Star" was Keats's last poem. Eventually, however, evidence came to light proving that this was not the case. (Source)
After Keats's death, his fellow poet (and acquaintance) Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote an elegy for him, entitled "Adonais." The title of the poem blends the names of "Adonis," a figure from Classical Greek mythology, and "Adonai," one of the Hebrew names for God. Shelley is hinting that Keats shared some of the traits of both figures. (Source)
Allen Ginsberg begins his poem on the death of his mother, "Kaddish," by referencing Shelley's poem "Adonais," showing another way in which the example of Keats lives on in future generations. (Source)