Two hearts writ on water

After a morning of St. Paul I decided to make a visit to what is officially known as the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome and unofficially called 'The Protestant Cemetery".  Buried there are several famous people but the most famous graves belong to two of the three Romantic Poets; John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley.  I took along two other priests who were interested in seeing the graves.  The Cemetery is a long walk from here, it lies not too far afield of the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls.  Normal people take the 23 bus.  The insane walk!  Those two priests will never walk with me again!  When we arrived we ran into the curator, who gave us a marvelous talk and then directions to the graves.

We first visited the grave of the English poet John Keats.  He died at the tender age of 25 here in Rome.  He had contracted Tuberculosis in England and on the advice of his doctor came to Rome for the climate.  I don't know what the climate was like then but it is very humid here almost all the time.  He left England in love with Fanny Brawne but unable to become engaged due to his poverty.  He had already written and dedicated the poem "Bright Star" to her.  None of her letters to him survive as he wished they be buried with him in the grave.  He traveled with his friend Joseph Severn who was to become a painter of some renown here in Italy.  Joseph painted the ceiling of Keats bedroom with flowers to cheer him up during his illness, the room he died in is next to the Spanish Steps.  Keats wished that his name not be put on the headstone and it is not there.  Severn lived with him and Keats died in his arms.  50 years later Severn felt badly that so famous a poet did not have his name but could not bring himself to break his promise that no name be placed on the grave.  So he had another plaque dedicated on the wall nearest the grave. This plague is without Keats name explicitly, he wrote a short verse poem and when you read the first letters of each line vertically it spells "K E A T S".  Clever!

The grave stone reads, "This grave contains all that was mortal, of a young English poet, who, on his death bed, in bitterness of his heart, at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words be engraved on his tomb stone, "Here lies one whose name was writ on water".  Above these words is carved a lyre with it's strings broken.  Severn died in his 80's and is buried beside him.

Keats on the left and Severn on the right

Keats tombstone

plaque on the wall opposite the grave

The inscription read vertically reads, "KEATS"

 If you follow the paved path past the pyramid and then go left up an unpaved path following the wall you come upon the Grave of Percy Shelly, fellow poet and friend of John Keats.  His stone reads, "Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change into something rich and strange".  Shelley died at age 29 from a drowning accident while swimming with friends.  His friends cremated him on the beach where they recovered the body.  Edward Trelawny plucked his heart from the fire.  In this grave are his ashes and his heart.  The stone also reads, "Cor Cordium", Heart of Hearts.

Percy Shelley's Grave

 In the same plot is buried beside him Edward J. Trelawny. They were friends, or more than friends, you can decide from the inscription on the tombstone!  Shelley was married 3 times and fathered children but it is claimed he had amorous relations with some men, Trelawny among them.  The inscription is from one of Shelley's poems entitled, "Epitaph".  It reads, "These are two friends whose lives were undivided, so let their memory be.  Now they have glided under the grave; let not their bones be parted.  For their two hearts in life were single hearted."

Edward J. Trelawny grave stone

 As you can see from the pictures the cemetery is very well maintained and lush with plants, flowers and trees.  It is park like in appearance.

Pomegranate's growing in the cemtery

Cemetery

cemetery

 The cemetery is easy to locate just off the Via Marmorata and just behind one of the last standing pyramids in the city.

Pyramid in the Piazza Marmorata

This monument is just forward of Shelley's. It is dedicated to a wife who died early and her husband was a sculpture, it certainly captures the sense of grief at losing a loved one.

However, one of the priests snapped this picture and was passing it around at the happy hour telling people, "This is what people look like after going for a walk with John".  I am sure Erin and Ralph know the feeling!!

The Story Family grave monument

Having finished our tour of the cemetery we headed home.