'The Poet or the Man': Impressions of John Keats on William Smith Williams.

This paper explores the impact Keats had, both as a 'poet' and as a 'man', on the young apprentice William Smith Williams, who worked for Taylor and Hessey and who may have been the last person to shake Keats's hand as he boarded the Maria Crowther for Naples. Williams's poem, published in The Table Book in 1827, reveals Keats's attractiveness to his teenage admirer, and suggests some of his feelings on leaving England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]