Keats letters

The thoughts about the nature of human existence that we find
scattered and evolving in his letters, much of this theory and
speculation possesses a remarkable harmony or unity that
derives directly from certain basic qualities of his character.
Perhaps chief among these personal qualities is one easier to
name in negative than in positive terms: the usual and genuine
absence in him of self-assertiveness. The dogmatic tone or spirit
was not his, and he disliked dogmatic men and arguments,
believing that it was more blessed to listen, learn, and explore
than to preach in support of a pre-selected text. Thus we find an
unusual gentleness about Keats’s strength of mind. Because of
the basically explorative thrust of his thinking, he was reluctant
to reach closed-end conclusions.
131
J. Clubbe et al., English Romanticism
© John Clubbe and the Estate of Ernest J. Lovell, Jr