Critical Essays on John Keats

Keat's ideal of negative capability, which he defined as letting the mind be a thoroughfare for all thought, is the subject of much recent criticism. These 18 essays published since 1965 by both British and American scholars focus on this and other broad aspects of study: Keats's degree of intellectual vigour, his philosophy and his current relevance. Seven contributions are original excerpts from studies in progress, presenting new historical evidence on the poet's major influences, his involvement in medicine and in his primary social and gender biases.