The great Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) stayed in Margate twice, in his early twenties. Both times were at crucial periods in his life. The first was in 1816, after successfully passing his apothecary’s examination at Guy’s Hospital, now part of King’s College, London. Part of the reason for going to the resort was to attend to his brother’s ongoing health issues. He was probably suffering from consumption.
The two stayed in the town over August and September 1816. They most likely stayed in rooms overlooking Hawley Square in the centre of the old town. Keats wrote while he was on holiday there several poems and letters. His sonnet “To My Brother George” explicitly refers to the environment he was in:
The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears,—
Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears
Must think on what will be, and what has been.
The following year, Keats started work on the epic “Endymion”. He initially went to the Isle of Wight to work in seclusion there, but when this did not work out he travelled to Margate. There his creativity flowed. He stayed there between April and May 1817. The importance of this period on his development and his commitment to being a poet has a life changing impact. While in the town, on 10th May, he wrote to fellow writer Leigh Hunt:
‘I went to the Isle of Wight, thought so much about poetry, so long together that I could not get to sleep at night; and, moreover, I know not how it was, I could not get wholesome food. By this means, in a Week or so, I became not over capable in my upper Stories, and set off pell-mell for Margate, at least 150 Miles, because, forsooth, I fancied that I should like my old Lodging here, and could contrive to do without Trees. Another thing, I was too much in Solitude, and consequently was obliged to be in continual burning of thought as an only resource… I have asked myself so often why I should be a poet more than other men, seeing how great a thing it is.’ (`Letters of John Keats’, ed John Gittings, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987, 10).
Keats evidently made up the decision to pursues his vocation.