Keats' Grave. The poet John Keats (1795-1821) was buried in the New Protestant Cemetery in Rome on 26 February 1821. Arthur Severn arranged the tombstone, which bears the epitaph: THIS GRAVE CONTAINS ALL THAT WAS MORTAL OF A YOUNG ENGLISH POET WHO ON HIS DEATH-BED In the BITTERNESS of his HEART [at] the malicious power of his [enemies] desired these words to be engrav[ed] on his tombstone ""HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER"" Feby 24 1821, William Bell Scott