The Keats-Shelley House is to the right of the picture which you will undoubtedly take of the Spanish Steps in Rome (If you are like the millions of people including myself who pulls out your camera on first glance of the steps from Piazza di Spagna).
When you enter the doors you will climb a staircase which leads to a small gift shop, here you pay €4.50 (for adults) and will be likely asked if you would like to buy a guide to the museum (I didn’t see the point since I was already there and had read up about it beforehand) then you climb one more floor to meet what must be the most well read women in the world “Do you have your tickets?” she whispers before checking them and returning to her book. The room you enter is a long calm room with soft lighting and a window at the end; lined to the ceiling with bookcases, chairs and paintings “Feel free to take pictures and sit in any of the chairs but please don’t sit on the bed in Keats’ room” the lady says as we break the silence with breathing. The silence is overwhelming after being outside not long before; the calm of the room makes the museum feels as though you are wondering through a stranger’s home (Which in fact you are in some ways) so taking pictures feels slightly inappropriate at first.
The other tourists there seem very intellectual (who wouldn’t when sitting in silence reading books) and don’t even look up from the pages of the books when I lean over them to see what’s inside the glass display cases behind them; letters from Oscar Wilde, Byron, Keats and Shelley are all there among others; paintings by Joseph Severn (who stayed with Keats in the house until he died) glass cases (I suppose it’s called a reliquary) which contains locks of hair and other objects related to the poets. A small room beside the guest book has more letters and Lord Byron’s wax carnival mask inside (which looks a lot like Ernest Hemingway to me).
At the bottom of the room is another which connects to Keats’ bedroom, this room has a big glass case in the centre and among the drawings and letters is a life mask of Keats (he looks a lot different from the paintings in my view) then comes the room in which the young poet breathed his final breath; an eerie room which after reading the letters from Joseph Severn about what happened to Keats here seems...very real. A narrow room with a high ceiling and the best view of the Spanish Steps is not what I pictured beforehand but it’s what I got. A sign by the door tells about how after Keats died all the walls were scraped and all things remaining in the room burned (because of health laws in 19th century Rome) It also says that the floors, ceilings and fireplace are original (I would have included the view to this). While I was looking at the death mask which sits beside the bed I remembered something that I had read 'I feel the flowers growing over me.' This was something Keats had said before he died; I looked up to the ceiling to find flowers carved into it and thought about how this view was most likely the last view that John Keats ever saw at the age of 25.
Life mask of Keats (Top) death mask (below):
The museum was a very powerful and interesting experience; the entrance fee is nothing when compared to other museums in Rome and in my opinion is well worth it. I was there with my girlfriend who has no real interest in poets or poetry and to quote what she wrote in the guest book “An inspiring place in a lovely location”.
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