John Keats' "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"

The Daily Poem

Goldberry Studios

Education For Kids, Arts, Kids & Family

4.6 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2021

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet prominent in the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, although his poems were in publication for only four years before he died of tuberculosis at the age of 25.[1] They were indifferently received by critics in his lifetime, but his fame grew rapidly after his death.[2] By the end of the century he had been placed in the canon of English literature and become the inspiration for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with a strong influence on many writers; the Encyclopædia Britannica described one ode as "one of the final masterpieces". Jorge Luis Borges called his first encounter with Keats's work an experience that he felt all of his life.[3] It had a style "heavily loaded with sensualities", notably in the series of odes. Typically of the Romantics, he accentuated extreme emotion through emphasis on natural imagery. Today his poems and letters remain among the most popular and analysed in English literature. Especially acclaimed are "Ode to a Nightingale", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", "Sleep and Poetry" and the sonnet "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".

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0:00.0	Hey babe, what you got there?
0:01.0	This is a check from Carvana.
0:02.5	I just sold my car to them.
0:03.7	I went online and Carvana gave me an offer right away.
0:05.8	Then they just picked up the car and gave me this.
0:08.2	Oh, that's a big check.
0:09.7	Well, obviously you could put this towards your next car, or we could finally get that jacuzzi,
0:13.8	or I could start taking tuba lessons, or I could quit my job and write my memoir. Or I can put it towards my next car with Carvana. Sorry, your check, not mine.
0:22.6	Sell your car to Carvana.
0:24.2	Visit Carvana.com or download the app to get a real offer in second.
0:32.6	Hello and welcome to the Daily Poem.
0:35.3	I'm Heidi White, and today is Monday, July 26. And today I'm going to read for you a poem by English Romantic poet John Keats. He was born in 1795. He died in 1821. He was quite young when he died. And he is widely considered to be one of the most brilliant poets
0:55.9	ever to write in the English language. It was also a primary figure in the English Romantic
1:02.1	movement. And today's poem is called On First Looking into Chapman's Homer, and this is how it goes.
1:10.3	Much have I traveled in the realms of gold and many goodly states and kingdoms seen.
1:17.3	Round many western islands have I been, which bards and fealty to Apollo hold.
1:25.2	Offed of one wide expanse had I been told that deep-browed Homer ruled as his domain.
1:33.4	Yet did I never breathe its pure serene till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold. Then felt I like
1:42.3	some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken or like stout
1:48.8	Cortez when with eagle eyes he stared at the Pacific and all his men looked at each other with a
1:56.2	wild surmise silent upon a peak in Darien.
2:02.8	I chose this poem because I just got back from a classical education conference.
	...

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