_Endymion_, begun during a visit to the Isle of Wight,
appeared in 1818, and was savagely attacked in _Blackwood_ and the
_Quarterly Review_. These attacks, though naturally giving pain to the
poet, were not, as was alleged at the time, the cause of his health
breaking down, as he was possessed of considerable confidence in his own
powers, and his claim to immortality as a poet. Symptoms of hereditary
consumption, however, began to show themselves and, in the hope of
restored health, he made a tour in the Lakes and Scotland, from which he
returned to London none the better. The death soon after of his brother
Thomas, whom he had helped to nurse, told upon his spirits, as did also
his unrequited passion for Miss Fanny Brawne. In 1820 he _pub._ _Lamia
and Other Poems_, containing _Isabella_, _Eve of St. Agnes_, _Hyperion_,
and the odes to the _Nightingale_ and _The Grecian Urn_, all of which had
been produced within a period of about 18 months. This book was warmly
praised in the _Edinburgh Review_. His health had by this time completely
given way, and he was likewise harassed by narrow means and hopeless
love. He had, however, the consolation of possessing many warm friends,
by some of whom, the Hunts and the Brawnes, he was tenderly nursed. At
last in 1821 he set out, accompanied by his friend Severn, on that
journey to Italy from which he never returned. After much suffering he
_d._ at Rome, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery there. The
character of K. was much misunderstood until the publication by R.M.
Milnes, afterwards Lord Houghton (_q.v._), of his _Life and Letters_,
which gives an attractive picture of him. This, together with the
accounts of other friends, represent him as "eager, enthusiastic, and
sensitive, but humorous, reasonable, and free from vanity, affectionate,
a good brother and friend, sweet-tempered, and helpful." In his political
views he was liberal, in his religious, indefinite. Though in his
life-time subjected to much harsh and unappreciative criticism, his place
among English poets is now assured. His chief characteristics are
intense, sensuous imagination, and love of beauty, rich and picturesque
descriptive power, and exquisitely melodious versification.

_Life, Letters, etc._, by R.M. Milnes (1848), _Poems and Letters_
(Forman, 5 vols., 1900). Keats (Men of Letters Series, Colvin, 1887),
etc. _Poems_ (1817), _Endymion_ (1818), _Lamia and Other Poems_ (1820).

KEBLE, JOHN (1792-186