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The Alchemy Of Art: A Study In The Evolution Of The Creative Mind Of John Keats, G. Brian Sullivan

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

From the time John Keats began Endymion (March 1817) until his abandonment of the second version of Hyperion (September 1819), we have thirty vital months comprising a span of development unparalleled in English literature. This dissertation focuses upon the central feature of that development— the evolution of the creative mind of the poet. I do not purpose another factual biography of Keats, but rather an exploration of the internal autobiography of the poet in self-genesis as this evolvement is impressed upon the symbolic structures of his works. In artistic vitality, incisiveness of thought, and individual sublimity, Keats achieved a ripeness …