John Keats' letters paint an unforgettably vivid and moving picture of the richly productive but also tragic final years of the poet's life. As he ponders on the nature of the writer's craft, he must first confront his brother's death from tuberculosis and then the imminent prospect of his own, tormented by the fear that he will not live to consummate his relationship with Fanny Brawne.

This general selection also includes many of his finest poems, versions of which often appeared for the first time within the letters themselves. Among them are: "Ode to Melancholy”, "Ode of a Grecian Urn", "Old Meg", "Ode to a Nightingale", "La Belle Dame sans Merci", and "To Autumn".