On first looking into Chapman’s Homer

On first looking into Chapman’s Homer

Keats thought that poetry had to be separate from ordinary speech. This poem is a sonnet- a Petrarchan sonnet. The sonnet was written after spending all night with a friend reading Chapman’s translation of Homer. Keats was 20 when writing this sonnet. Keats Passion toward poetry is the main realisation that the readers get from this sonnet. Critic John Middleton Murry called it ‘one of the finest sonnets in the English language’

Cortez did not discover the Pacific Oceans, Balboa did according to the ‘History of America’, and this is a mistake in the poem however critics have pointed out that ‘in poetry one looks for truth in human nature rather than in historical truths’. Ideally both should go hand in hand.

·         two actual discoveries in the poem - one astronomical, the other terrestrial

·         Hunt printed the poem as an example of a ‘new school’ of poetry.

Themes in the poem:

Ø  Exploration and discovery

Ø  Poetry and writing, art and music.

Ø  Ambition – he wants to be the Bard that follow Apollo completely.

Language

Ø  A lot of Latinate words are used in the poem – these words have association with cleverness (Keats was a new young poet and wanted this was one of his early sonnets, hi might have wanted to show off his abilities as a writer). Context: For cockney poets,  learned Latin

·         ‘Much have I travelled in the realms of gold’- the realm of gold describes the word of poetry? It talks of Keats knowledge with poetry, and his reading habits. The fact that it is portrayed as ‘gold’ suggests that poetry itself is inert, it does not rust or diminish. This metaphor also talks of a word of imagination- both the inferences of the quotation can be used together – when reading poetry Keats is taken to another world of imagination.

·         ‘Realms’ ‘states’ ‘kingdoms’ ‘demesnes’ -> images clusters of locations. These words as well as ‘in fealty’ suggest political organisations, the vocabulary is used to symbolise the world of poetry and in turn imagination. The immenseness of the world of poetry is inferred to in the poem. And the ‘l’ sound that is linked in the words ‘travelled’ ‘realms’ and ‘fealty’ emphasises these ideas and ties the words and the huge world of poetry together.

·         ‘Goodly’ and ‘gold’ = alliterative sounds this will chime with each other

·         ‘Fealty’ historical reference to fidelity to a lord, the obligation to be faithful to a lord, in this case to Apollo. ‘Bard’ archaic noun used for a poet, it is a Romantic idea. ‘Fealty’ too is an example of archaism, archaic language is used because it is spiritual and above understanding to a regular reader.

·         ‘And in many goodly states and kingdom seen’ example of syntactic inversion (reversal of the normal order of words) EFFECT: allows Keats to create rhyme where he needs them. This has an effect of being grand. John Milton does this a lot in Paradise Lost -> it was done to elevate tone and was an imitating of Greek and Latin grammar -> inflected grammar AKA Accidence.

·         ‘which bards in fealty to Apollo hold’ the holy function of a poet is indicated in his following of a God. Apollo is recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry.

·         EPITHET

·         Several praises to Homer: ‘Oft of one wide expanse had I been told’ – emphasis of Homer’s genius and his literary accomplishments to words with the same meaning of extensive is used. The two words= the adjective ‘wide’ and the modified word ‘expanse’. ‘the deep-browed Homer rules as his demesne’ -> ‘deep-browed’ refers to Homer’s intellect. The verb ‘ruled’ highlights that he was the best in the world of epic poetry.

·         ‘Yet did I never breathe its pure serene’- ‘breathe’ made the poem part of himself, almost absorbed it. Breathing is a necessity in life, one cannot live without the act of breathing, Keats, using this analogy suggests that poetry too is a necessity of life.

·         The adjectives: ‘pure serene’, and ‘loud and bold’ are used to describe Homer’s poem and Chapman’s translation of it. The majority of the descriptions are monosyllabic in contrast to the archaism and complexity of other description in the play. The simple beauty of poetry is showed through this.

·         ‘Till I heard Chapman’- although poetry is in written form and is an art to be read, Keats ‘heard’ it, for Keats poetry is the art of sound and this gives him life (‘breath’ connection) in speech the tone of voice can be sensed by the listener, similarly in homer’s poetry Keats can hear the flow and the voice of Homer himself. To Keats reader too, this sonnet concentrates on the tone and the rhyme of the poem and genuine effort for his work to flow and the tone to be highlighted can be identified, which Keats tries to mimic/ is influenced by homer/Chapman.

Sestet- there is a turn in the direction of the poem from this point: Keats compares his feeling and excitement when reading Chapman’s translation of Homer to other magnificent things that have taken place in history.

·         ‘Then’ – used to mark the turn, but also links the sestet and the octet together.

·         ‘like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken’- the consequence of reading Chapman’s translation of Homer’ epic reveals a new dimension to Keats, another world opens up. ‘watcher of the skies’ have a biblical allusion to the story of the 3 wise kings following a start to see Jesus’ – it is a romantic idea including the nature leading the way to reveal a source of power and protection.  The discovery of a new planet is rare and for a new planet to ‘swim’ into the ‘watcher’ evokes a sense of wonder.

·         ‘Swim’ gives a watery imagery (the linking of water and the sky gives a sense of unity in the world both the physical one and the poetic world).

·         ‘Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes’=  ‘eagle eyes’- suggest sharp vision, roman allusions. The eagle is the king of all birds, therefore is royalty, it is the most noble. (Keats suggests that the reader also needs sharp focus to discover a unique quality of a poem) Cortez-> Spanish conquistador and explorer who defeated the Aztec empire and claimed Mexico for Spain.

·         ‘Silent’ – contrast to the ending of the Octet which was ‘loud and bold’ the overwhelming feeling of Cortez and his men are shown and is emphasised in the last 2 lines of the poem. Poetic technique caesura used on the last line ‘silent,’ it is an imperative but also in the context it is used as a description.  

·         Caesura also used ‘-and all his men’.

·         The semantic field of vision is reoccurring factor toward the end of the sestet – ‘staring’ , ‘Look’d’, ‘eagle eyes’ -> Keats reinforces the power of searching within a poem to discover the unknown indirectly, he cleverly links this thought to the historic incident of the discovery of the Pacific Oceans.

·         The rhythms of the Chapman sonnet convey a wide-sweeping sense of movement – of planets circling the heavens, and ships circumnavigating the earth. These patterns were perhaps already implicit in the Petrarchan sonnet. But the last object to move physically in the poem is the planet that "swims into" the watcher's ken at the start of the sestet.

·         Rhyme scheme:

Hanson, Marilee. "John Keats Critical Opinion: ‘Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine’" <a href="https://englishhistory.net/keats/critical-opinion-blackwoods-edinburgh-magazine/">https://englishhistory.net/keats/critical-opinion-blackwoods-edinburgh-magazine/</a>, February 28, 2015