I finished The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, and now I’m very curious to read the works of John Keats. Both Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion have central and obvious elements related to the English poet, most obviously the fact that the books share the names of poems by Keats. Dan Simmons has two other books set in the same universe that also share names with the poet’s works: Endymion and The Rise of Endymion.

The life of John Keats is a sad one. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was age seven. His brother fell victim to the same illness 14 years later. Three years after that, at the age of 24, he succumbed to the same disease. During his career as a poet, he was savagely criticised by his contemporaries. His last request, out of suffering and personal frustration, was to inscribe only this message on his headstone:

“Here lies one whose name was writ in water.”