The Romantic Poets
Keats was one of the ‘big six’ Romantic Poets, the others being Shelley, Wordsworh, Coleridge, Blake and Byron.

A tenet of Romantic poetry is its focus on nature, on the supernatural and man’s insignificance in comparison to the natural world. It was a turbulent time when the Napoleonic Wars had not long ended and Europe was in a state of flux and unrest. In England the infamous Peterloo Massacre had occurred in August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd demonstrating against poor economic conditions and lack of parliamentary representation in the north of England.

Written in January of 1818 and posthumously published in 1838, John Keats composed this poem while taking a break from editing another one of his poems, “Endymion: A Poetic Romance.”

Keats reflected many of his experiences in his poetry. He would also reflect on his reading, and attempt to apply it to his life and outlook. King Lear was an important work in his life — a play about family, birthright and duty, and also abject misery. Keats saw echoes of the themes in his own life.

Structure
The poem is a sonnet of fourteen lines. The rhyme scheme is ABBA ABBA CDCD EE. The sonnet can probably be categorised as Petrarchan (for explanation see below), that is, the first eight lines — the octave or octet — address his own romantic creative inclinations, and the last six lines are addressed to Shakespeare, the ‘Chief Poet’, whose work seems to have the greatest pull on Keats' priorities. The division into the two sections in known as a volta or turn.

The metrical rhythm is broadly iambic pentameter, that is, five metrical feet or iambs per line, where a iamb is one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. The effect is measured and elegant, appropriate to the subject.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of the speaker, we can assume the poet, addressing firstly his own inspiration, ‘golden-tongued Romance’, who is presented like a Greek goddess, a ‘fair-plumed Syren’. After the volta he addresses ‘Chief Poet’, Shakespeare, urging him to give the speaker inspiration.

About Sonnets
A sonnet is a poem which expresses a thought or idea and develops it, often cleverly and wittily.

The sonnet genre is often, although not always, about ideals or hypothetical situations. It reaches back to the Medieval Romances, where a woman is loved and idealised by a worshipping admirer. For example, Sir Philip Sydney in the Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence wrote in this mode. Poems were circulated within groups of educated intellectuals and they did not necessarily reflect the poet’s true emotions, but were a form of intellectual showing-off! This may not have been true of all; it is a matter of academic debate today. It is generally believed, however, that Shakespeare’s sonnets were autobiographical.

Sonnets are made up of fourteen lines, each being ten syllables long. Its rhymes are arranged according to one of the following schemes:

• Italian, where eight lines consisting of two quatrains make up the first section of the sonnet, called an octave. This section will explore a problem or an idea. It is followed by the next section of six lines called a sestet, that forms the ‘answer’ or a counter-view. This style of sonnet is also sometimes called a Petrarchan sonnet.

• English, which comprises three quatrains, making twelve lines in total, followed by a rhyming couplet. They too explore an idea. The ‘answer’ or resolution comes in the final couplet. Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this pattern. Edmund Spenser’s sonnets are a variant.

At the break in the sonnet — in Italian after the first eight lines, in English after twelve lines — there is a ‘turn’ or volta, after which there will be a change or new perspective on the preceding idea.

Language
The metre usually chosen for sonnets is iambic pentameter, that is five iambs or metrical feet per line, where a iamb is one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. The effect is stately and rhythmic, and usually (but not always) creates a solemn, dignified mood.