ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER

by: John Keats (1795-1821)

      UCH have I travel'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 I 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.

'On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer' is reprinted from English Poems. Ed. Edward Chauncey Baldwin. New York: American Book Company, 1908.

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