Much have I travell'd 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
That deep-brow'd 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;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific -- and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise --
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Notes
'Charles Cowden Clarke says, in the article in The Gentleman's Magazine [Feb. 1874], that this sonnet was sent to him by Keats so as to reach him at 10 o'clock one morning when they two had parted "at day-spring" after a night encounter with a copy of Chapman's Homer belonging to Mr. Alsager of The Times. Mr. F. Locker possess an undated manuscript of the sonnet in Keast's writing, headed "On the first looking into Chapman's Homer;" while in Tom Keats's copy-book the heading is "Sonnet on looking into Chapman's Homer," and the date "1816."
~ Poetical Works of John Keats, ed. H. Buxton Forman, Crowell publ. 1895.
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Comments
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I studdied this poem in school. I loved it. I just wish more people would just pick up a book and read!
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tone of tis poem
From guest muhammad (contact)
tone of the 1st 4 lines of this poem is combantition informative 'much have i travelled'' and matter of fact. 5 to 8: thre is a contrast of tone in line 5 to 8, in other hand there is a cameless of the 'pure serene' and the noisy champan whoes work ''speak out and bold''. 9 to 14 tone of the last 6 line is full o wonder and admistor, he uses word such as ''swims'' ''wild''''surmise''''silent'' -
On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer holds a position of peculiar significance in his work as a whole: for several reasons: because it's one of the finest sonnets in the english language; because it's the first entirley successsful poem he wrote.
we recieve an impression of excitement so tense that the declared and actual subject of the poem isas it were dissolved away by it.
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