On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer
Lines:14Movement:Romanticism
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I beenWhich 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 sereneTill 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 menLook'd at each other with a wild surmise-- Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
