Information
Keats’s second visit to Margate May 1817
By this time the charm of Margate had receded; in a letter to a friend, Keats referred irritably to ‘this treeless affair'. It may be that he was contrasting it unfavourably with the Isle of Wight – ‘so beautiful a place' – where he had been staying previously, but more likely that his mood was a reflection of the fact that he felt unable to settle to any productive work - ‘I cannot write while my spirit is fevered in a contrary direction’. This mood prevailed during the whole of his stay, despite the comfort of returning to his ‘old Lodging' and the presence of his brother Tom. He had been working on his great poetic romance ‘Endymion' and it was not until he moved on to Canterbury (where he hoped that the remembrance of Chaucer would ‘set me forward like a Billiard-Ball') and elsewhere, that he was able to continue and complete successive parts of the work.
Quotations
Place | Extract |
| Margate | In addition, the second poem and another verse letter sent to a friend make plain the inspiration his new surroundings had been to him... |
| Margate | Keats’s second visit to Margate May 1817
By this time the charm of Margate had receded; in a letter to a friend, Keats referred irritably to ‘this treeless affair'... |
