Hotel Piazza di Spagna, Rome > Reviews > The Keats Shelley Memorial

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Advantages:	Wonderful tribute to two great poets
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It might be considered to be less than poetic justice that two of England's most brilliant poets are not only buried on foreign soil but may be the only poets to whom a memorial house-which is now part of Roman Folklore-has been dedicated in a country other than their own.

The two poets in question,John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley,are buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome whilst at No 26 Piazza di Spagna(the Spanish Steps),is the Keats-Shelley Memorial House.

The hugely talented but very sick John Keats had gone to the Eternal City on account of his health-he suffered from tuberculosis,like other members of his family had.The last few months of his life were spent in Rome and it was at 26 Piazza di Spagna that the brilliant London-born poet died at the tender age of 25.A plaque identifies the house.,whose exterior is much like it was when John Keats travelled to Rome.

Percy Bysshe Shelley,too,went to Italy for a cure.He was afflicted with pulmonary disease.This wonderful writer observed,"...It might make one in love with death,to think that one might be buried in so sweet a place." He wrote this after mourning at Keat's grave,which was covered with glorious violets. In just 18 months,he was to join his great friend. Not,however,from illness - he drowned after a boating accident during a violent storm off the coast of Viareggio.

The Protestant Cemetary in Rome is itself very poetic. Just like a verdant arboretum,tropical palms and sweet smelling palms seem to thrive together with a rich assortment of magnolia, oleander,holly,mountain ash,camellias and daisies.
On Keat's grave is the inscription,"..Here lies One Whose Name is writ on Water" whilst on Shelley's grave is his great friend Trelawny's proclamation, ".. Cor Cordium".

The Memorial House contains one of the very best libraries of Romantic literature in the world. There is also a good deal of memorabilia related to the two great poets,including life and death masks of Keats,his original drawing of the Grecian Urn of his well-known Ode to a Grecian Urn,a huge display of both manuscripts and letters,and a reliquary containing a lock of Milton and Elizabeth Barrett's hair. There are also manuscripts and a poem by Oscar Wilde,a splendidly bound first edition of Shelley"s Revolt of Islam and a letter by Wordsworth.

The Keats-Shelley Memorial House is open to the public during weekdays and for generations the place has been visited by famous literary and artistic figures.Among visitors can be counted,Hans Christian Andersen,Lord Byron, Browning,Goethe,Liszt,Stendhal, Tennyson, George Eliot, Coleridge,Oscar Wilde and Henry James.

You can find out more concerning the history and works of these brilliant Englishwriters by visting the web site Http;/heritage.virtualsite.co.uk. After that you could always make a trip to the Eternal City and include a visit to the Keats-Shelley House on your itinerary.