6533b7cefe1ef96bd125768f

RESEARCH PRODUCT

An English Poet in Scotland: John Keats's Letters To His Brother Tom

subject

description

This paper studies the letters John Keats sent to his brother during his walking tour of Scotland. This means of expression provided the young poet with a medium in which to share his doubts and shocks when confronted with what was still a very foreign country for an Englishman at the time. The article first shows how letter-writing plays a part in creating distance from unpleasant experiences, mostly thanks to humour. It then moves on to a study of Keats's reactions in front of the Scottish landscape and Burns's cottage and tombstone, two aspects of Scotland he had been eager to discover. The language in the letters thus gradually becomes more literary, and the last part of the article focusses on the poems written during the walking tour, to analyse the flux of creation between letters and poems.