Title page of 'Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes and other poems’ which belonged to Charles Brown

In summer 1820, John Keats’s third and final book of poems was published. While at the time this volume failed to sell well, it is one of the strongest collections of poetry ever written. The ‘Lamia etc’ volume contains many of the poems Keats composed during 1818 and 1819, a brief time of extraordinary creativity and craftsmanship. These poems reveal what Keats knew so well – there could be no happiness without sorrow. By 1820 his problems were mounting. Illness, heartache and money worries overshadowed the months when his best and last work was made public. Without the support of his friends and publishers, his poems might never have appeared in print. Keats never knew the pleasure the poetry in this volume would later bring to so many people. He died within six months of its publication and for years after his death it remained virtually unknown.