Byron’s Death

1. Byron’s Death • Fell ill; remedy of bleeding caused fever • Greek national hero • Heart buried under tree • Westminster Abbey refused body • Monument in Westminster Abbey 145 years post-mortem

2. Byron’s Works • “Epigraph to a Dog” • Byron’s masterpiece: Don Juan • “She Walks in Beauty” • “Darkness” • Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

3. John Keats 1795-1821 • Born in London • Four siblings • Keats’s father died • Mother remarried two months later • Children sent to live with grandmother • Mother died of tuberculosis

4. Keats’ Medical Career • Apprenticed to apothecary/surgeon • Student at Guy’s Hospital • Wrote first poem • Became junior house surgeon and dresser • Qualified as apothecary • Quit medicine

5. Writing, Relationships & Illness • Published Poems • Friend of Percy Bysshe Shelley • Brother George left for America • Brother Tom died of consumption • Fell in love with Fanny Brawne • Symptoms of tuberculosis • Traveled to warmer climate to recover

6. Keats’ Death • Died in Rome at 25 • Buried in Protestant Cemetery in Rome • Tombstone reads: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” • Fanny Brawne mourning for years • Poetic career lasted 3.5 years