Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2010 | Page 37

ISLAND HISTORY

February/March 2010
Debauchery in so beautiful a place.’
Walking in the Bowcombe Valley, with a

their mother.
The highlight of these years however

life

pronounced it a fit abode for ‘…romantic
old maids fond of novels, or soldiers

stunning view of the castle, he wrote the

was meeting the pretty neighbour at the

widows with a pretty jointure.’

memorable line ‘A thing of beauty is a joy

house where he lodged in Hampstead,

tourists he dismissed as ‘hunting after the

forever,’ now synonymous with the Island.

Fanny Brawne. John fell utterly in love.

picturesque like beagles.’

Visiting Shanklin, John reported a

He agonised about never being rich

Other

In company with his mood the weather

dilemma to Reynolds: ‘Yesterday, I went

enough to marry her but they became

was dismal and he concluded that the

to Shanklin, which occasioned a great

unofficially engaged. Even so, he found

damp from the sea was as enervating

debate in my Mind, whether I should

himself unaccountably depressed. Then

and weakening as a city smoke. After six

live there or at Carisbrooke. Shanklin

came the blow.

weeks he left for Winchester.

is a most beautiful place- sloping wood

As he made his second visit to the Island

Keats was never to return to the Island.

and meadow ground… primroses which

staying at Eglantine Cottage in Shanklin

Seeking respite from his disease he went

spread to the very verge of the Sea.’ He

High Street with an ailing friend James

to Rome and there, on February 21 1821,

continued breathlessly: ‘But the sea, Jack,

Rice, he experienced the unmistakable

he died.

the little waterfall – then the white cliffs

symptoms of TB. Trying to maintain

His early writings from Carisbrooke to

– then St Catherine’s Hill.’ His excitement

a feeling of optimism he wrote to his

Reynolds must have made an impression

leaps from the page. Happily these

sister Fanny Keats, “Our window looks

for after his ten year-old daughter

aspects of the area have hardly changed.

over house tops and Cliffs onto the sea,

Lucy died, Reynolds, who was declared

He also concluded: ‘Primroses- the Island

so that when the Ships sail past the

bankrupt, abandoned London to take

ought to be called Primrose Island, that is,

Cottage chimneys you may take them for

up a modest post as clerk to the county

if the nation of Cowslips agree thereto.’

weathercocks,” but gradually his mood

court at Newport. Here he lived at Node

grew more melancholy.

Hill until his death in 1852, being buried

Overwhelmed by everything around
him, John found it difficult to sleep. The

The friends were joined by James

at Church Litten. His is one of the few

“shadowy sound” of the water inspired

Armitage Brown. Rice then eturned to

remaining gravestones, his claim to fame

him to write the sonnet “On the Sea,”

the mainland while Brown encouraged

being that he was “The Friend of Keats.”

recording it in all its moods from its

Keats to write. His jaundiced view

gentle temper to its mighty swell. His

however is apparent and after visiting

visit ended on April 24th/25th 1817.

the undoubtedly beautiful Bonchurch, he

Shanklin honoured the poet’s visits by
naming the cliff top walk Keats Green.

By JAN TOMS

Two years passed before
he made a second visit but
during that time, there were
many changes in his life. The
guardian of his finances,
Richard Abbey was