John Keats
On First Looking into Chapman’s <em>Homer</em>
from Poems, 1817
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. | ||
5 | 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 | ||
10 | 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. | ||
First published 1817
Daniel Robinson