John Keats - The Poetry Of. Keats. The name is synonymous with great romantic poetry and great romantic poets. A short life but a legacy of works that few if any can rival. And of course his end was to be tragically romantic. Keats was returning one night to his home in Hampstead when he coughed. He coughed a single drop of blue blood upon his hand and said 'I know the colour of that blood, it is arterial blood, it is my death warrant, I must die. And so it was that tuberculosis took its slow devastating hold. He moved to Rome hoping the warmer climate would help but died at age 25 in 1821. These poems are read for you by Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe.