John Keat's Life History

 Frances Jennings and Thomas Keats's delivered this first child, John Keats, on October 31^st in 1795. He was born and raised outside of London with 3 siblings, aside of one who died as an infant. His family carried a business which provided horses to near by neighbors. When John was 8, his father suffered from a skull fracture after being thruster by his horse. Hours later, the accident had caused his fathers death.

Two months had gone by and yet John’s mother had wed a bank clerk to help her carry Thomas’s business. Although the marriage was a failure leaving the children sent to their grandparents.  The lost of their grandfather took place soon after John and his siblings moved in. The family had to live on half of the regular income.

The Keats brothers went to school where they were very well known. John especially caught a few teachers’ eye with his passion of arts literature. In 1810 his mother died of an illness and within 4 years their grandmother past away. Money became extremely tight and John and his siblings were put to care under two other guardians. John was forced to leave school to help be an assistant for a surgeon. His first poetry was written while he was in medical training called The Examiner.  He then left his medical experience and dedicated himself to literature.

Famous Bryon and Shelley were big influences in Johns work.  In 1817, Keats worked on poetry and launched his book filled with his poetry. He fell in loved with a woman named Fanny Brawne in 1819. That same year he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he felt that his death was coming upon him. A year later he published another volume of poems are known to be his best work. His work includes his famous poems; Lamia, Isabella, and the Eve of St. Agnes.

He became weak and racked up a heavy cold. Slight coughs had caused him to cough off blood and became fetal as time went by. He left cold climate of London and moved to Rome in where his friend took care of him. John Keats died on February 23 in 1821.He was known to be one of the poets of his time along with Percy Shelly and Lord Byron.  

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Today while roaming the web, I came across another inspiring blog about John Keats and his work.  The difference between the blog I found and other blogs about John Keats is the diversity in perspectives.  Other blogs have one perspective from a group of people, while this blog has different perspectives. 

This talented group of writers isn't afraid to disagree with each other, which is refreshingly real.  No one agrees with everything, so it would be fake and unrealistic to have a blog where everyone agrees with each other.  Another plus for me, the site was easy and pleasing to the eyes.  Not all blogs have a clean and simple layout, but this blog manages to have a clean cut look with a festive feel.  Everyone should take a look at The Life and Works of John Keats. 

A site filled with relatable articles that anyone could relate to, even if they are not studying romanticism or poetry.  My top pick for the most relatable article is "John Keats and Pop Culture."  Listening to the radio today, I realized all the points in that article were true.  What's the point of today's pop music?  Most popular music today is revolved around sex, money, and drugs.  Music with meaning does not exist anymore. 

I admit to loving most songs with no point just for the catchy beat, but music would be worth so much more with a deeper meaning added.  Reading a book is like reading someone's inner soul, music should be like listening to someone's inner thoughts.  I truly enjoyed "John Keats and Pop Culture," and give major props to Tina Ho for creating a work that made me think on a deeper level.  The bloggers behind the computer screens have a way with words and ideas that had me re-reading. 

Anyone can get something by just taking a look at this blog, even for just a moment.  At my first look, I was surprised by how festive it was with the holiday colors, sparkling white trees, and the falling snowflakes (my favorite part).  Obviously, the articles are the main reason to even visit a blog, and this blog doesn't fail at presenting relatable ideas to everyone.  Articles that relate to life, which makes it almost impossible for no one to relate to.

Just Look On The Bright Side

My future is unknown.
Living life in the moment with only hopes and dreams of what could be, like a flower in hopes of the sun shining on me for growth.
A small meek flower with no idea what could happen.
One day can be filled with rays of warmth, the next with pouring tears everywhere, then frigid storms from a cold shoulder.
No maps telling me where my life will be going. No directions to follow.
I can’t control the outside surroundings, but the decisions I make do dictate to the direction of my life.
The world around me is unpredictable.
No sense of stability exists, everything constantly changes. I change too, but I change for me.
As the world changes, life changes.
My decisions effect the world, just as the world’s decisions effect me.
With no way of knowing what the future holds, dreams are the only visions of what the future could be.
The more I think, the more I wish I could just sit here and reminisce about my life, the future, and all the possibilities.
The possibilities for love, a career, and just about everything.
Love?
So many questions pop up in my mind...
Will I ever find love?
Who will it be with?
What if I don’t find love?
Does love even exist?
I will only find the answers out with time.
My dreams give me hope that hopefully one day in the future, I will be in love.
If love exists, I want to feel it.
Not just the love from family, but the true romantic love in all the movies and stories.
All this thinking is wearing me out, it’s wearing me down.
I know this sounds crazy, but I all I do is think about the future and what could be. 
I can only hope I grow into tall strong flower with tons of sunshine and a fair amount of tear drops.
I may not be able to control my future, but I have dreams of what it could be like.
My future is unknown, but I’m okay with that. 
My life is like a game of chance, I never know what I'm going to get.

Strange Short Film

Short films are straight forward and to the point, but this short film fails to understand.  "Isabella & The Pot of Basil" interprets the original poem with fair accuracy.  Many scenes of the original poem were reenacted to the pristine merits of John Keats' work. 

An odd beginning in the film with multiple references to Elvis' death set a murky tone to the rest of the film.  Elvis does not relate to John Keats or Isabella one bit, but the film makers find it important to include the reference through out the entire production. 

As the film continues, confusion flourishes as each minute passes.  An attempt of adding modern twists to the film just makes it confusing and hard to understand.  "Isabella & The Pot of Basil" does not do justice for the masterpiece written by John Keats.

In the poem, the setting takes place in Italy, by the beach. Sweet Isabella lives in a glorious mansion with her two older brothers.  However the movie interprets the setting with a different vision.  Isabella comes from a family of wealth, but in the movie she is seen cooking eggs in a small kitchen. 

Her house in the film resembles a house from the fifties not one of a wealthy Italian.  The poem describes her house as a giant mansion with servants and maids everywhere.  If Isabella has maids and servants, then she should not have to cook her own eggs. 

The most confusion came from the fact that the brothers lived in a closet.  There was never any mention of that in the poem and no factual reason for them to be placed there during the film.  Another puzzling film scene was whenever Isabella fed her brothers fried eggs. 

Some of the additional scenes added to the film makes absolutely no sense and has no connection to the poem.  The brothers' gas masks just call for even more thoughts and questions of why someone would ever watch the film.  One of the brothers had creepy black nails that would frighten anyone.  Black nails and creepy gas masks combined together with some evil laughs were never mentioned in Keats' poem.  Keats intended for dark tale of love, but he never would have pictured the film featured above.

A Portrait of Isabella & Her Pot of Basil

In a majority of images related to "Isabella," a poem by John Keats, usually portray her holding her pot of basil.  Why must all artists focus on Isabella and her pot?  None of the images even attempt to show Lorenzo or the brothers murdering him.  The poem may be titled "Isabella," but that does not make Isabella the center of attention. 

Although almost all the events in the poem revolve around Isabella, that does not mean she is or should be the main focus of the story.  The climax of the poem was when Lorenzo was killed by Isabella's brothers, without Lorenzo's murder there could not have been a turning point in the poem for Isabella's madness.  Another scene that should be portrayed more often is the madness Isabella went through in search for her lovely Lorenzo's body in the dark forest. 

A picture that needs to be portrayed are the moments of her odd encounters with Lorenzo after his death.  More paintings and portraits of Isabella's ghostly dream, her digging him up, or her cutting his head should exist.

Searching for an image that relates to "Isabella," without finding a picture of a girl moping next to a plant, is almost impossible.  It should not be a difficult task to find a portrait of some sort that is somewhat relevant  to the poem without having a girl next to a pot, but sadly it is. 

Artists should widen their perception of "Isabella," and share other scenes from the gruesome poem.  People need to step away from the obvious and go more in depth.  Obviously "Isabella" depicts how Isabella planted her loved one's head in a pot for basil to grow, but many other aspects of the poem portray events just as prominent.  All the pictures serve as an after shot of Isabella's state of being, none of the images show what happened to make her that way. 

All of her sadness was shown, but all of her other emotions were overlooked.  No one even bothered to capture her happiness, love, or craziness.  Isabella's sadness and grief was just the last part of the poem. 

However, her other emotions made up the rest of John Keats's poem.  Isabella's craziness was the most outstanding emotion in the entire poem.  People need to look beyond the last note of a poem, and search for the major impression that the poet left.