Poetic High

A St Andrews academic’s new work on John Keats claims that the life of the famous Romantic poet was far more rock and roll than previously thought. Professor Nicholas Roe argues that much of Keats’ poetry was completed whilst under the influence of opium.

The English Professor suggests that after the death of his brother, Keats became a frequent user and would also dose himself to relieve his chronically sore throat. Aside from pain relief, the drug had a great impact on his levels of creativity; it seems that many of his well-known odes are owed to opium.

The Romantic Literature expert said, “When Keats writes in ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ of having ’emptied some dull opiate to the drains’, he means – very precisely – that the insights of his poem resemble those released by downing a decanter of laudanum.”

“Keats has become too familiar to us. My biography is intended to open up new questions about Keats – to ask readers to revisit poems by him that they may think they already know well.”

So next time you’re reading Keats, don’t be surprised by the odd bit of high-perbole; you aren’t tripping out, but he might well have been.

Image ©Mary Evans/Rue des Archives/PVDE