Poem by John Keats

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

    Sonnet

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. 

1. Song (“The stranger lighted from his steed”)
2. Song of Four Faries
3. On Receiving a Laurel Crown from Leigh Hunt
4. Bards of Passion and of Mirth
5. On Fame

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