Editing John Keats (section)

==Death, 1821==
The first months of 1821 marked a slow and steady decline into the final stage of tuberculosis. His autopsy showed his lung almost disintegrated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dubos |first=René |title=The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man, and Society |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1952 |location=New Jersey, USA |pages=11 |language=English}}</ref> Keats was coughing up blood and covered in sweat. Severn nursed him devotedly and observed in a letter how Keats would sometimes cry upon waking to find himself still alive. Severn writes,

{{blockquote|Keats raves till I am in a complete tremble for him<ref name="mistakes"/>... about four, the approaches of death came on. [Keats said] "Severn{{snd}}I{{snd}}lift me up{{snd}}I am dying{{snd}}I shall die easy; don't be frightened{{snd}}be firm, and thank God it has come." I lifted him up in my arms. The phlegm seem'd boiling in his throat, and increased until eleven, when he gradually sank into death, so quiet, that I still thought he slept.<ref>Colvin (1917), p. 208.</ref>}}
[[File:John Keats Tombstone in Rome 01.jpg|thumb|upright|Keats's grave in Rome]]

John Keats died in Rome on 23 February 1821. His body was buried in the city's [[Protestant Cemetery, Rome|Protestant Cemetery]]. His last request was to be placed under a tombstone bearing no name or date, only the words, "Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water." Severn and Brown erected the stone, which under a relief of a [[lyre]] with broken strings, includes the epitaph: <!-- This is a poem - marking the given line break format is important. -->
{{blockquote|This Grave / contains all that was Mortal, / of a / YOUNG ENGLISH POET, / Who, / on his Death Bed, / in the Bitterness of his Heart, / at the Malicious Power of his Enemies, / Desired / these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone / ''Here lies One / Whose Name was writ in Water / Feb 24th 1821''<ref name=nb>[[Francis Beaumont]] also used the expression in ''The Nice Valour'', Act 5, scene 5 (? 1616): "All your better deeds / Shall be in water writ, but this in marble." The text bears an echo from [[Catullus]] LXX: {{lang|la|Sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti / in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua}} (What a woman says to a passionate lover / should be written in the wind and the running water).</ref>}}

Severn and Brown added their lines to the stone in protest at the critical reception of Keats's work. Hunt blamed his death on the ''Quarterly Review''{{'}}s scathing attack of "Endymion". As Byron quipped in his narrative poem ''[[Don Juan (poem)|Don Juan]]'';
{{blockquote|<poem>
'Tis strange the mind, that very fiery particle
Should let itself be snuffed out by an article.
(canto 11, stanza 60)
</poem>}}

Seven weeks after the funeral, Shelley memorialised Keats in his poem ''[[Adonais]]''.<ref>[http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/adonais-elegy-death-john-keats Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats]. Representative Poetry Online. Retrieved 29 January 2010.</ref> Clark saw to a planting of daisies on the grave, saying Keats would have wished it. For public health reasons, the Italian health authorities burnt the furniture in Keats's room, scraped the walls and made new windows, doors and flooring.<ref>Richardson, 1952, p. 89.</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/may/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview7 "Keats's keeper"]. Motion, Andrew. ''The Guardian'', 7 May 2005. Retrieved 29 January 2010.</ref> The ashes of Shelley, one of Keats's most fervent champions, are buried in the cemetery and Joseph Severn is buried next to Keats. On the site today, Marsh wrote, "In the old part of the graveyard, barely a field when Keats was buried here, there are now umbrella pines, myrtle shrubs, roses, and carpets of wild violets".<ref name="window">[https://web.archive.org/web/20110517105154/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/poetry/article6898590.ece "A window to the soul of John Keats" by Marsh, Stefanie.] ''The Times'', 2 November 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2010.</ref>