This poem is Shelley's lasting tribute to John Keats.
Shelley greatly admired Keat's poetry. He offered several invitations to Keats to come and stay with him. All offers were refused. Shelley was regarded as a little mad; besides which his close relationship with the dissolute and bisexual Lord Byron meant that a handsome young man in his early twenties might well consider it wise to keep at a distance.
When Shelley heard that Keats, who was travelling in Italy, was apparently dying he made a last plea to Keats to come to his home in Pisa, where he might be properly cared for. Keats went instead to Rome where he died in a house overlooking the Spanish Steps. Shelley gave a plot which he owned in the English section of Rome Cemetery and wrote this magnificent tribute to Keats.
When Shelley himself died in a storm at sea only a few months later, he had a copy of Keats poetry in his pocket, doubled over as if he had been reading it just before the storm struck.
Don't dis' P.B.S. and Lord B.
2005-12-05
Added by: michael
First of all, Maddy, Shelley wasn't 'mad' in any way, he was simply rejected by society for his atheism and his Left Wing politics. He was also a much more mature, talented and complex writer than was Keats, who died too young before he could have composed anything that would even remotely compare with the superior efforts of his contemporaries.
P.S. Byron wasn't dissolute; he was debauched, decadent and dastardly: all essential qualities for a revolutionary modern poet. And your pejorative comment on his sexuality is a cheap (not to mention homohobic) shot.
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Shelley greatly admired Keat's poetry. He offered several invitations to Keats to come and stay with him. All offers were refused. Shelley was regarded as a little mad; besides which his close relationship with the dissolute and bisexual Lord Byron meant that a handsome young man in his early twenties might well consider it wise to keep at a distance.
When Shelley heard that Keats, who was travelling in Italy, was apparently dying he made a last plea to Keats to come to his home in Pisa, where he might be properly cared for. Keats went instead to Rome where he died in a house overlooking the Spanish Steps. Shelley gave a plot which he owned in the English section of Rome Cemetery and wrote this magnificent tribute to Keats.
When Shelley himself died in a storm at sea only a few months later, he had a copy of Keats poetry in his pocket, doubled over as if he had been reading it just before the storm struck.