John Keats (1795-1821), one of the greatest of English poets, was born of a humble backround and he was apprenticed to an apothecary. He came under the influence of Leigh Hunt and his circle, and in 1818 found himself attacked as a member of Leigh Hunt's 'Cockney School' of poverty.
However, he is more properly ranked as one of the foremost of the second generation of the romantic poets, which includes his great contemporaries Byron and Shelley. When tuberculosis overtook him he moved to Italy at Shelley's suggestion, and died in Rome, directing that his epitaph should read "Here lies one whose name was writ in water".