ABSTRACT
Myths about John Keats's body have been crucial in determining the way his poetry has been read and his biography has been written. The myths developed partly because the contemporary magazine reviewers of Keats's poetry carried out a campaign of ad hominem attack. Criticism of Keats's poetry was thus expressed metaphorically in comments upon his physical state of health — 'a sudden attack of the malady'. In one sense, the reviewers were essentializing Keats, reducing his work, with comic absurdity, to the stereotypical outcome of one of his class and physical nature. The reviewers' attention upon Keats's body is most striking for the way in which it focused upon his gender. Keats was frequently described in feminine terms, given feminine attributes or at any rate considered not to be fully male. The 'feminizing' of Keats troubled readers and critics because it disturbed their conventional notion of gender polarity, of typical male writing and typical female writing.
