This paper investigates the ways in which John Keats strives to write from his visits to the Isle of Wight, which is a crucial and yet relatively neglected locality in studies of the relationship between his poetry and places. We aim to underscore Keats’s explicit account of poetry as the sole purpose of his existence while dwelling on the island. In this regard, it is worth noting that Martin Heidegger’s claim for the poetic dwelling of human beings is adequate to our discussion of Keats’s poetics of dwelling as a founding of his being in the words. Keats experienced the Isle of Wight at least three times: first, in April 1817; second, in June, July and August 1819; and third, when he passed by off Yarmouth in September 1820. Despite the fact that Keats stayed only briefly on the island and his base was at Wentworth Place in Hampstead, London, the Isle of Wight was integral to forming Keats’s life and poetry. His dwelling on the Isle of Wight marked important moments: the beginning of Endymion, composing the sonnet “On the Sea” at Carisbrooke; writing the first love letters to Fanny Brawne from Shanklin and working on both Otho the Great and Lamia; and sending Charles Brown the last letter from the soil of his own country, “off Yarmouth,” en route for Italy. Keats’s sense of place points to his aspirations for drawing inspiration from places as mediated by the creative imagination. Hence, this paper calls attention to how Keats puts poetic meanings into places he visited and discovers his continual quest for a fixed point of reference—“still stedfast, still unchangeable.” Keats has created a lasting space of dwelling, that is, his own poetry and letters via the readers.
This paper investigates the ways in which John Keats strives to write from his visits to the Isle of Wight, which is a crucial and yet relatively neglected locality in studies of the relationship between his poetry and places. We aim to underscore Keats’s explicit account of poetry as the sole purpose of his existence while dwelling on the island. In this regard, it is worth noting that Martin Heidegger’s claim for the poetic dwelling of human beings is adequate to our discussion of Keats’s poetics of dwelling as a founding of his being in the words. Keats experienced the Isle of Wight at least three times: first, in April 1817; second, in June, July and August 1819; and third, when he passed by off Yarmouth in September 1820. Despite the fact that Keats stayed only briefly on the island and his base was at Wentworth Place in Hampstead, London, the Isle of Wight was integral to forming Keats’s life and poetry. His dwelling on the Isle of Wight marked important moments: the beginning of Endymion, composing the sonnet “On the Sea” at Carisbrooke; writing the first love letters to Fanny Brawne from Shanklin and working on both Otho the Great and Lamia; and sending Charles Brown the last letter from the soil of his own country, “off Yarmouth,” en route for Italy. Keats’s sense of place points to his aspirations for drawing inspiration from places as mediated by the creative imagination. Hence, this paper calls attention to how Keats puts poetic meanings into places he visited and discovers his continual quest for a fixed point of reference—“still stedfast, still unchangeable.” Keats has created a lasting space of dwelling, that is, his own poetry and letters via the readers.
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