The Influence of Medical Science on Keats's Thought

Abstract

<p>This dissertation examines the influence of Keats's medical training and knowledge on his poems and letters, an influence that has usually been ignored or denied. While a fair amount of attention has been focused on the immediate biographical facts of Keats's five-year apprenticeship to the surgeon Thomas Hammond and his year of training at Guy's Hospital, very little has been paid to the influence of medical science on his thought; no comprehensive study of such influence has been attempted previously.</p> <p>As a certain amount of confusion still surrounds the details of Keats's personal experiences as a medical student, the first chapter examines the biographical facts of his training. In addition, it outlines the state of medical education in the early nineteenth century, generally in England and specifically at Guy's Hospital. The subsequent chapters trace the influence of Keats's medical knowledge on his thought, a single chapter being devoted to each of the subjects Keats studied as a medical student: chemistry, botany, anatomy and physiology, and pathology and medicine. In each case, specific images and metaphors, as well as broader ideas and attitudes, are examined in the poetry and correspondence.</p> <p>The chapter on chemistry examines the influence of chemical terms and concepts on Keats's ideas concerning artistic creativity and the workings of the imagination, as expressed in the letters. The chapter on botany deals with specific natural images of plants, trees, flowers, and vegetables in the poems, as well as with Keats's broader approach to the creative and destructive forces in nature. The chapter on anatomy and physiology examines the descriptions of the body, particularly of the brain, in the poetry and letters, as well as Keats's ideas on sensation and imagination, in light of his anatomical and physiological knowledge. The final chapter deals with the influence of Keats's knowledge of pathology and medicine on his understanding of his own illnesses and on his descriptions of the diseased states of his protagonists; in addition, it traces the development of his view of life, love, and creativity in metaphorical terms of disease and health, and examines his concept of the poet as a physician. Throughout, my purpose has been to enhance our understanding of the poetry.</p>