John Keats's 1819 odes

Miniature of Keats in his twenties, a pale sensitive young man with large blue eyes looking up from a book on the table in front of him, with his chin on his left hand with his elbow. He has tousled golden-brown hair parted in the middle, and wears a grey jacket and waistcoat over a shirt with a soft collar and white cravate tied in a loose bow.
John Keats in 1819, painted by his friend Joseph Severn

In 1819, John Keats composed six odes, which are among his most famous and well-regarded poems. Keats wrote the first five poems, "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Ode on Indolence", "Ode on Melancholy", "Ode to a Nightingale", and "Ode to Psyche" in quick succession during the spring, and he composed "To Autumn" in September. While the exact order in which Keats composed the poems is unknown, some critics contend that they form a thematic whole if arranged in sequence. As a whole, the odes represent Keats's attempt to create a new type of short lyrical poem, which influenced later generations.


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