Keats' On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
The Awe of Discovery
John Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” is a Petrarchan sonnet with a traditional Petrarchan rime-scheme in both octave and sestet, ABBAABBA CDCDCD. The speaker conveys his awe at discovering a new translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey, whose translator was the classical scholar, George Chapman.
Octave: “Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold”
In the first quatrain of the octave, the speaker declares that he has read widely in world literatures; he metaphorically dramatizes his literary jaunts as “travel[ing] in realms of gold.” Thus he has observed “many goodly states and kingdoms.” He claims he has explored many of the “western islands” off the coast of Greece where the Greek god Apollo would have reigned supreme, especially for poets.
In the second quatrain, the speaker avers that the poet “deep-brow'd Homer” once held court in those places. Homer narrated his tales, telling them over and over again to breathless audiences. And the speaker then claims that he had not been able to appreciate the magnificence of Homer’s poetry until he experienced the translation by George “Chapman speak[ing] out loud and bold.”
Sestet: “Then felt I like some watcher of the skies”
The speaker then picks out two other phenomena to help him dramatize the deep awe he has experienced through the new translation. He likens that feeling to an astronomer who has just watched “a new planet swim[ ]” into view. The excitement of discovering a new planet would surely be very great, and this speaker’s excitement, he believes, equals that of the astronomer.
He also alludes to the excitement of the western explorers who first saw the Pacific Ocean. Those explorers, of course, had previously thought they had reached Asia, particularly India, but then through their constant push westward, they discovered that a whole new ocean that they had not known before separated them from the goal of their journeys. The speaker believes again that his discovery of Homer as brought to him by this classical scholar equaled the discovery of a new ocean.
Commentary
Unfortunately, this poem reveals that Keats’ grasp of history is tenuous, further emphasizing the fact that readers cannot trust poets with historical accuracy. Some critics have argued that the use of the name “Cortez” fits the rhythm of the line better and are willing to sacrifice historical accuracy for aesthetics—an unfortunate and even dangerous stance.
It is doubtful that Keats meant any perfidy with his error and probably believed he was being accurate in crediting Cortez with the discovery.
The first Spanish explorer to discover the Pacific Ocean was, of course, Balboa, not Cortez. Strangely enough, Keats did, however, correctly identify Darién as the mountain from which Balboa first saw the Pacific.
Other Keats articles:
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