If we were all equal, would Joseph Severn, Heinrich Köselitz, and Paco Román have lived their lives the way they did?
I write of these three unsung heroes while thinking about today’s young people, accused perhaps unfairly of self-entitlement and a lack of fortitude but raised in such a way as to believe they deserve no less than the spotlight in the universe.If you did, it’s maybe only because of John Keats.
.” In fact, among his last wishes was to be buried under a tombstone that bore neither name nor date, just the words “Here lies the one whose name is writ in water.”Keats died on Feb. 23, 1821. Too young, he was barely 25. His prophecy would have been true, had it not been for Joseph Severn, who apparently made good use of his brief time with the poet.
Aside from nursing him, Severn did portraits of Keats, sketched his deathbed and his work desk and his living space, wrote numerous letters to his family and friends in London about Keats and his state of health, and recorded as much of the goings-on as he could in a journal. His hard work was the only surviving account of Keats’s days in Rome and biographers turned to it as a source of the poet’s last days and wishes.
I write of these three—I’m sure there are many others—while thinking about today’s young people, accused perhaps unfairly of self-entitlement and a lack of fortitude but raised in such a way as to believe they deserve no less than the spotlight in the universe. I wonder how they would play their role, if they were to know it wouldn’t be the starring role, if they were to know that theirs would only be a supporting role, such as those played by Joseph Severn, Peter Gast, and our very own Paco Román.