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From The Bibliophile Library of Literature, Art, & Rare Manuscripts, Volume I, compiled and arranged by Nathan Haskell Dole, Forrest Morgan, and Caroline Ticknor; The International Bibliophile Society, New York-London; 1904; p. 224.



[224]

ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN’S HOMER.


By JOHN KEATS.





MUCH have I traveled 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-browed 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 stared at the Pacific — and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise —
     Silent, upon a peak in Darien.









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