ODE to BURNS

Two hundred years ago this year, the poet, John Keats, died in Rome, where he had gone to convalesce after contracting tuberculosis. Aged just 25, Keats left behind an impressive collection of work, made even more remarkable by the fact that he only took the decision to concentrate on his writing three years before his death. A trip he made to Scotland in the summer of 1818 played an important part in this decision-making process.

Accompanied by his friend, Charles Armitage Brown, the poet set off from London in mid-June of that year on a walking tour of northern England and Scotland. The events surrounding