“THEN FELT I LIKE SOME WATCHER OF THE SKIES”
Posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010
On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer
Written by John Keats October 1816
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 on 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.
The Beak of the 10th Sun Raven STILL GLOWS!
Categorized as Poetry,Myths & Legends
