Portraits · Poets · IV of XIV

John Keats

1795–1821 · Poet

Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own Works.
John Keats · letter to his publisher, 1818

Read it in the source →

John Keats wrote this in October 1818 to James Hessey, one of his publishers, after hostile reviews of his long poem Endymion. Praise and blame pass quickly, he said, for a maker who loves beauty and judges his own work hardest.

His own criticism, he added, had hurt him far more than any review could.

Letter to James Augustus Hessey, 9 October 1818 (Colvin's date; Rollins dates it 8 October). Sidney Colvin (ed.), Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends (London: Macmillan, 1891), p. 167.

The originals

Miniature portrait of John Keats resting his chin on his hand, with an open white collar — **The likeness**PAINTED BY JOSEPH SEVERN · 1819Our portrait is painted after it.Public domain (painter died 1879). Commons notes third-party copyright claims over the reproduction (NPG). Oil on ivory miniature, 105x79 mm, NPG 1605.

A handwritten draft beginning Season of mists, with several lines struck through and rewritten — **To Autumn · the draft**The first page of his draft of To Autumn, written in September 1819, with lines struck through and rewritten as he worked.To Autumn, autograph manuscript, 1819, first page. Houghton Library, Harvard University, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.