.
Upon John however, the death of the mother struck powerfully. [ ] But now there was only the stunning sense of loss. Inevitably there was the momentary retreat that we all experience, and the strong but confused sense that a large responsibility had fallen on him. For he was now the oldest male in the family [ ]. (Bate 21) .
John now realized that he had the responsibility of taking care of his younger brothers and sister (Kipperman 180-181). .
During the time in which John's mother came back into his life, he was beginning to write and it is said that due to his mother's death, he began to take interest in schooling and poetry because of the loneliness that he felt when she died. He used the events of his childhood to inspire him to enter contests and submit works that he had written (181).
The third loss, and probably the one that affected Keats the most was the illness and finally the death of his brother Tom at the age of nineteen on November 30, 1818 (Inglis 35). John had taken care of his brother Tom as soon as it was apparent that Tom was beginning to become increasingly ill (Bate 362). With the illness of Tom came the feelings of guilt by John for wanting to still pursue poetry while his brother was deathly ill (Ward 221). "Throughout the rest of August and much of September, he John) went out relatively little. Tom needed almost constant attention, and Keats himself continued unwell- (Bate 365). .
Keats was soon beginning to feel the effects of his brother's illness on himself (460). Aileen Ward tells of when Keats went to visit his brother after getting news of his increasing illness, a few months before his death. .
Tom was not better but much worse. Early in August, he had had a.
relapse so serious that Sawrey asked Dilke to send for Keats at once. [ ].
With a sinking heart Keats climbed the hill to Well Walk, where Tom lay .
waiting "pale, feeble, pitiably thin, and seized by the now uncontrollable.
