Keats’s obsession with death drove his poetic ambition

Evidence

Keats didn’t give up. In the short span of five years, he produced many timeless poems including the astonishing “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a Nightingale.” Before he became desperately ill, he was confident that his verse would live on after him, despite the bad reviews. He predicted, “I shall be among the English Poets after my death.” And indeed, Keats was obsessed with death, which seemed to hover over his shoulder and dictate to his pen. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 398

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Becker’s Denial of Death thesis about the artist channeling death terror into creative work.

Related

• Keats’s poetry emerged against ridicule and personal catastrophe (similarity 0.80)