John Keats(1795-1821)

Poet, son of the chief servant at an inn in London, was sent to school at Enfield, and having meanwhile lost his parents, was apprenticed to a surgeon at Edmonton. In 1815 he went to London to walk the hospitals. He was not, however, enthusiastic of his profession, and after being introduced to such poets as Leigh Hunt, Hazlitt, Shelley, and others, he turned eagerly and devotedly to literature. His first work—some sonnets—appeared in Hunt’s Examiner, and his first book, Poems, came out in 1817. This book, although not fully developed, already exhibited touches of beauty and music.
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, however, didn't affect his health, as he displayed a considerable confidence in his own powers, and his claim to immortality as a poet. Symptoms of hereditary consumption, however, began very soon, so he decided to spend some time in the Lakes and Scotland. Unfortunately, the tragic death of his brother Thomas, told upon his spirits, as did also his restless passion for Miss Fanny Brawne. In 1820 he published Lamia and Other Poems, containing Isabella, Eve of St. Agnes, Hyperion, along with the odes to the Nightingale and The Grecian Urn, written over a period of 18 months. This book was warmly praised in the Edinburgh Review. By this time, his health had completely given way, and he was somehow harassed by narrow means and hopeless love. 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 died in Rome and was buried in the Protestant cemetery.
Keats is probably the greatest member of that group of second-generation Romantic poets who blossomed early and died young. He was worn better than Shelley because he developed a self-discipline in both feelings and craftmanship to which Shelley never attained. Indeed, one of the most astonishing things about him is the independence with which he undertook his own artistic training.
From Biographical Dictionary of English Literature - the Everyman Edition of 1910

links: - John Keats from The British Library's Online Information Server - Keats-Shelley Journal - Poems