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The final six lines may vary; common patterns are cdecde, cdcdcd, and cdccdc” (Meyer & Miller, 2019, p. 484). In other words, the poem’s form is tightly related to the poem’s content because the first six lines or the octave focus on the narrator’s travels and search for literary understanding. However, the latter six lines, or the sestet, are centered around the revelation and knowledge of the narrator, where a new translation of the Greek poem is delivered in a more profound manner to create awe. As the sonnet’s title suggests, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” addresses Keats’s first look at Chapman’s translation and the feelings he encountered upon reading—and ruminating on—Chapman’s work. The first section of the sonnet, the octave, describes how Keats has read many versions of Homer’s stories, both the Iliad and Odyssey. Though he has traveled to intoxicating lands via earlier translations, his love of these works is born anew upon reading Chapman’s take on the Greek text.
The moment of revelation on Darien is viewed in lingering long-shot. Somehow, the comfortable closure which the sonnet-form invites is "translated" into an open question. We see the focused, interrogative stare of the expedition's leader, and, on the faces of his men, the "wild surmise" that generates further questions. We have not only reached the Pacific Ocean, but the emotional core of scientific discovery.
The Full Text of “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer”
Darien is a stretch of land on the eastern part of the isthmus joining Mexico and South America. It is very important in the history of geographical discoveries. Tracing the very short career of one of England’s greatest poets. Students looking for free, top-notch essay and term paper samples on various topics.
A villanelle is a nineteen-line poem that is divided into five tercets or sets of three lines, and one concluding quatrain, or set of four lines. Dharmender is a writer by passion, and a lawyer by profession. He has has a degree in English literature from Delhi University, and Mass Communication from Bhartiya Vidhya Bhavan, Delhi, as well as holding a law degree. Dharmender is awesomely passionate about Indian and English literature. His longer poems are ‘Lamia‘, ‘Hyperion‘, ‘Endymion‘, ‘The Eve of St. Agnes‘, and a lot more.
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer”
He never traveled to Darién but may have seen the Pacific sometime after his conquest of the Aztec Empire or during his 1524–1526 visit to Honduras. Later during his governorship of Mexico, Cortés was a major explorer of the Pacific coast of Mexico and Baja California. At the break in the sonnet — in Italian after the first eight lines, in English after twelve lines — there is a ‘turn’ or volta, after which there will be a change or new perspective on the preceding idea.
It is only after reading Chapman’s translation, which told about Homer clearly and boldly, he experienced the real joy of reading him . In such a world, he has come across a number of distinguished writers, their works, and their immense knowledge. He has even visited the western Islands where inspirational poets like Apollo were born.
Related summaries: books by John Keats
Though Wordsworth and Shelley have also written some remarkable odes, no other English poet has returned to this form so often and with so much success. Keats has created an uplifting and thought provoking sonnet which encourages and inspires us to seek beyond the knowledge we have already gained, and to always aspire for more. This sonnet is so technically praised because not only is the content inspiring, but his appreciation of verse form and meter have been demonstrated faultlessly through out to create a satisfying piece of art in a mere fourteen lines. The fourth line moves away from those who enjoy art, to those who actually create it; “Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.” The high, even sacred function that poets fulfil is indicated by their being the servants of a god, Apollo, and having sworn to follow him . “Fealty” indicates their dedication to Apollo and consequently their calling – the creation of poetry. The word choice of “gold” shows just how rich and rare these experiences are, and also alludes to the search for gold of the Spanish conquistadors, linking to his reference to Cortez in the Sestet.
For him, the discovery of Homer as translated by Chapman provides the same kind of overwhelming excitement felt by an astronomer who has discovered a new planet or by Cortez when he first saw the Pacific from a summit in Central America. This poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, also known as an Italian sonnet, divided into an octave and a sestet, with a rhyme scheme of a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a-c-d-c-d-c-d. After the main idea has been introduced and the image played upon in the octave, the poem undergoes a volta, a change in the persona's train of thought.
The celebratory sonnet was completed the same night, in time to be delivered to Clarke in the following morning's post. The first four lines discuss the poet’s travels in the ‘realms of gold’ , and the second quatrain introduces Homer, epic Greek poet who wroteThe Iliadand The Odyssey, which tell the story of the Trojan War and Odysseus’ journey home following the war. A Petrarchan sonnet must not only be unified, like any other poem, but the thought must also make a change of direction, or "turn," at the beginning of the sestet. Keats' turn is his two comparisons taken from astronomy and exploration.
The elation of observing a new planet for the first time would no doubt be very intense, and this speaker's enthusiasm, he thinks, is equal to that of the astronomer. He also refers to the enthusiasm of the western explorers who originally discovered the Pacific Ocean. Those explorers had at first believed that they had reached the Asian continent, in particular, India.
"On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" is a sonnet written by the English Romantic poet John Keats (1795–1821) in October 1816. It tells of the author's astonishment while he was reading the works of the ancient Greek poet Homer, who was freely translated by the Elizabethan playwright George Chapman. After reading Chapman’s translation of Homer Keats uses the imagery of discovery and exploration to convey the idea that he is capable of creating his own work and formulating his own ideas.
Though he lived a short life, his contribution to the poetry world and his achievement in this field has been all the more remarkable. Keats died of consumption before he had completed his twenty-sixth year, and is, therefore, in Shelley’s phrase, one of “the inheritors of unfulfilled renown.” Keats was neither a rebel nor a utopian dreamer. According to him, “Poetry should be, not the vehicle of philosophy, religious teaching, or social and political theories, but the incarnation of beauty.” He is regarded as the greatest writer of odes in English.
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