John Keats (1795-1821). I. "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." Hunt and Lee, comps. 1867. The Book of the Sonnet

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Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

I. “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”

By John Keats (1795–1821)


MUCH have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been,
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told	5
That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies,
When a new planet swims into his ken;	10
Or like stout Cortes when with eagle eyes
He stared 1 at the Pacific—and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Note 1. “Stared” has been thought by some too violent, but it is precisely the word required by the occasion. The Spaniard was too original and ardent a man either to look, or to affect to look, coldly superior to it. His “eagle eyes” are from life, as may be seen by Titian’s portrait of him. [back]

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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