John Keats: Selected Poems A Newsletter Study Guide for International Examinations
John Keats: Selected Poems
A Newsletter Study Guide for International Examinations
Chapter One: About the Poet – John Keats (1795 – 1821)
Early Life and Family Tragedy
Education and Medical Training
The Turn to Poetry
The Annus Mirabilis: 1819
The Final Journey
Posthumous Reputation
Chapter Two: The Six Great Odes of 1819
Ode to Psyche – The First of the Odes
Ode to a Nightingale – The Flight of the Imagination
Ode on a Grecian Urn – Art and Eternity
To Autumn – The Acceptance of Mortality
Ode on Indulgence – The Refusal of the Imagination
Chapter Three: The Narrative Poems
The Eve of St. Agnes – Romance and Reality
La Belle Dame sans Merci – The Ballad of Betrayal
Chapter Four: The Sonnets
Bright Star – The Sonnet of Steadfast Love
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be – The Fear of Premature Death
Chapter Five: The Letters – Negative Capability and the Poetic Self
The Negative Capability Letter (December 1817)
The Chameleon Poet Letter (October 1818)
The Vale of Soul‑Making Letter (April 1819)
Chapter Six: Major Themes – Beauty, Truth, Mortality, and the Imagination
Beauty as Truth
The Mortality of Beauty
The Imagination as Temple
Negative Capability
Chapter Seven: Literary Techniques and Devices
Synaesthesia
Personification
Musicality and Rhyme
Sensory Density
The Ode Form
Chapter Eight: Key Facts and Contextual Background
The Cockney School Controversy
Keats and the Romantic Movement
Medical Training and the Poetry of Sensation
Tuberculosis and the Shadow of Death
Chapter Nine: Model Examination Answers
Model Answer 1: AS/A Level – The Theme of Mortality in Keats's Odes
Model Answer 2: IB Higher Level – Negative Capability
Model Answer 3: AP Literature – The Role of the Speaker
Chapter Ten: Comparative Critical Perspectives
New Critical Perspective
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Marxist Perspective
Ecocritical Perspective
Chapter Eleven: Key Quotations, Symbols, and Exam Strategies
Essential Quotations by Theme
Symbols
Chapter Twelve: Glossary of Critical Terms for Examinations