John Keats Heats Up Houghton
It may have been a thrill for Harvard undergrads to have a little bit of Hollywood in their backyard this past year, with film crews blocking off Dunster Street and celebrity sightings in CVS. But Harvard's relationship with tinsel town doesn't end where the set begins. To coincide with the release of “Bright Star,” the new romantic film about the great 19th century English poet John Keats and his love interest Fanny Brawne, Harvard’s Houghton Library has launched a new exhibit. The display, titled “John Keats and Fanny Brawne,” showcases some of the few relics of a romance that fans have long been left to wonder about.
Houghton already holds one of the largest collections of Keats’ correspondence, including 13 of his 39 surviving letters to Brawne. “It just seemed with the movie coming out, I thought it would be nice to do something topical,” said Houghton curator Leslie Morris.
A STAR-CROSSED LOVE ON DISPLAY
The Keats room is a permanent feature of the Houghton Library, as a constant ode to one of the most popular English poets of all time. Although Keats died at the age of 25, he left a lasting impression, not just with his poetry, but also his personality. Keats scholar Professor Jack Stillinger said, “He had a short life and not too much in terms of outward events, but we have his letters and see he was an attractive character, a nice guy. That connection makes him more valuable.”
While the exhibit may be small in size, it is a powerful testament to a passionate relationship manifested through letters and tokens of affection.
Much like Keats’ own tragically short life, the Keats room is remarkably beautiful but modest in size and decoration. The small room’s rich oak walls are lined with Keats’ works, a monument to his prolific writing. His words more than his life dominate the room, but along the walls hang heirlooms of Keats’ love and life, revealing new insights into this charming figure. These personal letters casts the enormous literary figure in a different way. “They’re funny—like some of his earlier poetry,” said Heather G. Cole, assistant curator of modern books and manuscripts. “A lot of his later poems are about death. It is nice to see him in a lighter attitude, and also what may have inspired him.”
A much more personal side of Keats is revealed at the new Houghton display, which includes two of Keats’ original letters to Brawne. Even through a strong plexi-glass case and after 200 years, Keats’ cursive seems to stream off the page. Without a scratch or crossed-out word, his letters speak to a passionate and sometimes humorous rapport with his beloved, whom he often addressed as “My dearest girl.” Keats wrote in one letter, “If illness makes such an agreeable variety in the manner of your eyes I should wish you some time to be ill.”
A lock of Brawne’s hair, a silhouette of her shapely figure, and other intimate artifacts commemorate a relationship that was only revealed to the public long after both had passed away. So few items remain of their love affair that there are no extant records of Brawne’s correspondence. A romantic until his death, Keats was buried with his letters from Brawne, leaving fans and researchers to only speculate about her role in the relationship.
DRAMATICIZING THE ROMANCE
With only written records from one side of the romance, the crew behind “Bright Star” had the challenge of making the movie into a story that encompassed both halves of the romance. In terms of research, “You only have his letters to Fanny. You don’t have much of Fanny from which to work,” explained Morris. But the film, which has opened to critical praise for both its story and its commitment to historical accuracy, has created a romance much from Brawne’s perspective, a voice that has remained largely silent for so many years.
Researchers for “Bright Star” used some of the same letters at Houghton to construct the scenes of dedication and love shared between Keats and Brawne in the English countryside. Even in the film, Director Jane Campion chose to let Keats’ prose take center stage. “Jane’s number one mantra throughout the pre-production process was to keep the visuals simple,” said the film’s cinematographer Greig Fraser said in an email interview. “I’m sure this was largely in part to allow the audience the full luxury to be able to bask in the poetry on screen. Keeping the visuals simple, served to amplify the message of each of Keats poems.”
Evidence of this cinematography is found in one of “Bright Star”’s most passionate scenes when Keats and Brawne read the poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” to each other. Houghton’s inscribed copy of Keat’s poem, “Lamia,” to Brawne certainly alludes to the possible ways the two romantics expressed their love through prose.
COMMERCIALIZING KEATS
Scholars often worry whether a major motion picture distracts or taints an author’s works. Stillinger, who has written and edited multiple books on Keats, said the new attention to the poet has only had positive effects. “All this attention, all the reviews, all the people seeing it—it’s a great boost for Keats and the study of English poetry,” he said. “I don’t think many people outside of the undergraduate community would [otherwise] read his works.”
People seem to be excited to come to see these romantic vestiges from one of the world’s most treasured poets. The exhibit has already earned a buzz, with so many anticipated guests that it will be moving to larger showcase area in Houghton this month.
Asked why she thinks so many people are drawn to the “John Keats and Fanny Brawne” exhibit, Coles said, “Love letters are things people respond to. They’re more accessible.
I think it personalizes the individual. Here’s an old book—it’s hard for people to connect to it. If you say here is a love letter he gave to his neighbor, it humanizes him. For people who live 200 years later, it is something they can connect with.”