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- 1816
- ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER
- by John Keats
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- 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 of 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.
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- THE END
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