Lockhart's Cockney School of Poetry, which read more as a personal attack on Keats than the Cockney School as a whole, was surprisingly effective. Though it did neglect specifics, to which it would have been undoubtedly indebted, the essay did nevertheless draw attention to the wild and uncontrolled nature of Keats' early poetry. Consider: How many bards, Chapman's Homer, and Elgin Marbles (admirable works, all of them) were written in 1816/17. Lockhart's essay was published August 1818. Finally, Ode to a Grecian Urn, within which I find incredible improvement of Keats' craft, was published 1820.
Though I do doubt Lockhart's advice was taken (it is, after all, the motivating force of the young to disobey and disprove the old) I do find his essay interesting as a potentially motivating factor in Keats' maturation as a poet.
This idea of whether Keats took Lockhart's criticism to heart is interesting considering how often and intensely the Romantics were criticized. Lockhart's criticism, though, is mostly centered on Keats' affection for the classics, an aspect of his work that remains constant in the poems he produced after this criticism was made. I think this is, like you said, an instance of Keats ignoring the opinions of his elders and continuing to compose poems lauding the classics though with even greater ease of verse and language.
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