SOURCE: "The Letters," in John Keats, Twayne Publishers, 1981, pp. 32-50.

In the following essay, Hirst demonstrates the significance of Keats's letters, asserting that within them, Keats reveals the details of his theories regarding "negative capability, " "soul-making," and the "truth of Imagination."

I General Characteristics

Keats's 251 surviving letters provide a detailed record of his three most creative years and of the last year, when he no longer wrote poetry. They give us a clear picture of his personality, trace his development as a poet, and are full of spontaneous pronouncements on the nature of poetry which have become starting points for countless discussions on aesthetics. We come across phrases like "negative capability," "truth of Imagination," and "Soul-making" so often in criticism that we tend to forget the informal context in which such expressions first appeared.

Although, taken as a whole, Keats's letters may be seen as a fairly coherent...