On_First_Looking_Into_Chapmans_Homer

On First Looking Into Chapmans Homer COMMENTARY ON ¡§On First Looking Into Chapman¡¦s Homer¡¨ This poem is an expression of how the poet John Keats felt after rediscovering Homer¡¦s ¡§The Odyssey and the Iliad¡¨ when he read Chapman¡¦s English translation of this Greek classic. To express this he uses the form of a sonnet, with fourteen lines, every set of two lines rhyming. The first four lines are one long sentence consisting mainly as metaphors to summarize his full meaning in whole. ¡§Much have I travell¡¦d in the realms of gold, and many goodly states and kingdoms seen¡¨. This can be understood only in a ¡§literary¡¨ and not a ¡§literal¡¨ sense. I say this because he was relatively poor and probably had traveled very little when he wrote this poem at age 21.* But we know that he had a strong passion for literature. * John Keats is trying to tell us that he has traveled and explored the rich realms of literature. ¡§Round many western islands I have been which bards in fealty to Apollo hold¡¨. Keats is using ¡§western Islands¡¨ to cause us to think of ever new vistas of constant discovery. Keats is stressing the honoured poets (bards) passion and obligation toward keats, poem, homer¡¦s, chapman¡¦s, odyssey, just, version, read, never, literature, lines, john, greek, english, darien, been, because, ¡¥the, western, way, understood, traveled, serene, realms, probably, powerful, planet, passion, page, pacific, one, new, men, made, islands