Keats: On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

Question 1

Structure

Answer 1

Octave (8 lines, ABBA ABBA)
Sestet (6 lines, CDCDCD)
VOLTA in line 5
Petrarchan Sonnet

Question 2

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.

Octave 1st half

Answer 2

Overall
* Sets up extended metaphor of travelling
* Places speaker as someone who has read widely- ‘literary credentials’
* Says the benefits to the individual FIRST (1st couplet) & THEN the benefits to civilisation (2nd couplet).

Literal
- “gold” NOT literal, rather the intellectual + mental reward.
- “l…l…l…l” (L)- alliteration of L’s- Luxurious quality, reflecting the importance of treasure to the poem.
- “Western”- exploration by the West.

Question 3

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:

Octave 2nd half

Answer 3

• “One wide expanse”- characters & literary achievements
• “d..d..ruled..d”- alliteration of ‘d’- emphasises the last words “demesne” –> the kingdom to inellectual activity. (‘Demesne’ = one’s posession of property’)
• “Yet”- The volta is 2 lines early for a Petrarchan Sonnet!!!
• “Its pure serene”- assonance, consonance, enjambment –> immerses reader.

Line 7 (“yet I did never…”) references the slow breathing then reading.

Question 4

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.

Sestet

Answer 4

• “skies…swims”- Allusion to the discovery of the planet Uranus by Herschel in 1781. Therefore is a simile. Also shows the joys of discovery for its own sake, without having to rule.
• “Cortez”- caused the downfall of the Aztecs. Keats made a mistake here (he really means Vasco de Balboa, but Cortez was left in to fit the metre)
• “eyes”- alliteration, emphasises importance of eyes in reading.
• “surmise”- awe-inspiring to Cortez & his men- just like how Homer is to the reader!
• “Silent, upon a peak”- consonance is gentle, combines with ‘n’ sounds to quieten poem to create feeling of awe & reference the silence when reading. Trochee (silent) disrupts the IP, leading to the conclusion.

Question 5

Extended metaphors

Answer 5

• Speaker as an explorer
• Through speaker’s example, poem suggests all readers can use literature to travel in a similar way.
• Homer’s presence is enjoyable through Chapman.

Question 6

Date of publication

Answer 6

October 1816

Question 7

Definitions:
Ken
Fealty
Demesne

Answer 7

Ken: range of knowledge and understanding
Fealty: acknowledgment of loyalty to a lord
Demesne: one’s posession of property

Question 8

Trochee

Answer 8

The opposite of an iamb. i.e., it’s (/ U) Stressed-Unstressed
Seen in final line in “UPon a peak in Darien”