John Keats

Keats experienced a hard childhood with his mother coming in and out of his life, when she returned one time after four years she was ill and he had to take care of her until her death. He never got over her not caring enough to be around and take care of him and his siblings. This affected his writing style and caused it to be somewhat somber.

I liked Keats' La Belle Dame sans Mercy, this poem is about a man and a woman who fall in love but do not end up together, he ends up alone.

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
Fast withereth too

This is where the somberness of Keats' writings are shown. The lily is a sign of death, and the rose of love. So he is saying I see death ahead for you, but you do love, but that is going away as well. Maybe, this is somewhat how he could have felt when his mother came back and he was nursing her until her death. He saw death ahead for his mother and he had to watch her die, of course he loved her and she loved him. But, because she was dying he might have felt that her love was dying for him. Could this have been why he wrote this? Could this be the reason he didn't really write poetry with happy endings, the people died or were unhappy?
I think that it is good to see poetry from different people in the same time period and know their backgrounds because when seeing what someone writes it gives insight into their life, their thoughts and feelings. Some of the other writers in this period also experienced many trials and tribulations but their writings were not always as dark as Keats.