John Keats Trivia Quiz

Answer: John Keats

The publication of the 'Lyrical Ballads' in 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is considered the beginning of Romantic movement in English literature. But, in reality, the movement was heralded by poets like William Blake, James Thomson, etc. in the sixties and seventies of the 18th century. Of all the leading Romantics, John Keats was the youngest.

His poetic career was a brief one of only five years and a half. He died at 25.

Answer: Keats's first poem was published

The year 1816 was in many ways significant to the brief life of John Keats. He received his apothecary's license in that year. He began his "Calidore: A Fragment" and developed friendships with many prominent writers of the time. But, the most significant event was the publication of his first poem "O Solitude" or "To Solitude" in Leigh Hunt's magazine "The Examiner".

The poem was published on the 5th May, 1816.

Answer: John Gibson Lockhart

The so called 'Cockney School' of writers were said to be characterized by their "low diction", "their lack of education", "non-formal rhyming" and "low social standing". They were considered upstarts in the literary world because they didn't have an Eton, Harrow or Oxbridge education.

Answer: Fanny Brown

Keats developed a passionate love towards Fanny Brown. He expressed his passion for Fanny in the love sonnet 'Bright Star'. According to Gittings, "it was a declaration of his love towards Fanny Brown". The poem was first published in 1838 in "The Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal", 17 years after the death of the poet.

Answer: 6

John Keats found odes to be his most congenial poetic form. He wrote to George and Georgiana Keats after writing 'Ode to Psyche' in the night of April 30, 1819: "I have been endeavouring to discover a better Sonnet stanza than we have. The legitimate does not suit the language well, from the pouncing rhymes; the other appears too elegiac, and the couplet at the end of it has seldom a pleasing effect. I do not pretend to have succeeded. It will explain itself". (extracted from 'Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends' edited by Sidney Clovin in Project Gutenberg eBook, Chapter: XCII.-TO GEORGE AND GEORGIANA KEATS, p. 260)

Most probably 'Ode to Psyche' was written first and 'To Autumn' last.

Answer: Ode on a Grecian Urn

John Keats was a Greek at heart. He was inspired by the Platonic concept of beauty. He expressed his philosophy of beauty in the quoted words in his famous ode 'Ode on a Grecian Urn', published in 1819.

Answer: A character in 'The Golden Ass' by Apuleius

Apuleius, a Latin author of 2nd century, created the character of the goddess Psyche in his novel "The Golden Ass". Psyche was a merchant's daughter. Her beauty made Zeus jealous. He ordered his son Cupid to dupe Psyche and compel her to marry a vile creature. But, Cupid himself fell in love with her and so Zeus was compelled to grant immortality to Psyche. Thus a human being attained divine status through love.

The myth of 'immortality through love' fascinated the young poet and he began his great ode series with this story of Psyche.

Answer: 'Philaster or Love Lies A-Bleeding' by Beaumont and Fletcher

Keats died at 25. He was not considered a good poet at that time, but he knew that some day he would be considered a great poet. He made this prophecy in a letter to his brother Tom. He told his friends to inscribe the quoted words on his tomb. The lines were inspired by the words 'all your better deeds, Shall be in water writ' in 'Philaster or Love Lies A-Bleeding' by Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher(1579-1625).

Answer: White Death

Tuberculosis or consumption was also called 'The White Death'. During Keats' time it was synonymous with death. There was no cure for it at the time. It was also the family disease of the Keats family.

Answer: Adonais

Shelley was very shocked at the untimely death of John Keats in 1821. He felt that the adverse criticism of Keats' 'Endymion' by Wilson Crooker in 'The Quarterly Review' was the indirect cause of Keats' premature death. He wrote an elegiac poem titled 'Adonais' in order to commemorate the death of his beloved friend and fellow poet.