Keat's poetic genius erupted in 1816 in the first of a series of great works. He was variously hailed as a major new force in poetry, and the natural heir to the Romantic throne and – like Shelley before him – criticized for his politics. In his short life he proved to be one of the greatest and most original thinkers of the second generation of Romantic poets, with such poems as 'Ode to a Nightingale', 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' and 'La Belle Dame sans Merci'. While his writing is illuminated by his exaltation of the imagination and abounds with sensuous descriptions of nature's beauty, it also explores profound philosophical questions.
