On first looking into Chapman's Homer Flashcards
“Chapman”
- A Renaissance writer who translated Homer’s works
- An unpopular translator
“Much have I travelled in the realms of gold”
“Much have I” - presents Keats’ as a well read individual
“Travell’d in the realms of gold” - extended metaphor, a journey symbolising his reading
- Portrays literature as having a transformative power - imagery of “gold”
“Goodly states” “Western islands”
- Quality European literature
“bards in fealty to Apollo hold”
- Poets presented as being loyal and devoted to Apollo
- Implication that Keats’ wants to join these poets in their devotion and quality but it’s too difficult now
“That deep brow’d Homer”
- Homeric epithet - a key quality to describe someone
- Keats’ uses one of Homer’s techniques, paying homage to him
- “Deep brow’d” presents Homer as wise and intellectual
“Ruled as his demesne”
- Implies Homer’s wide knowledge of literature and writing
“Yet did I never breathe its pure serene”
“breathe” - metaphor, tactile imagery - portraying the experience of reading a transformative experience
- implication of this as a necessity, keeping Keats alive
“Pure serene” - portrays it as a beautiful and spiritual experience
“Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold”
- Monosyllabic, reflects Chapman’s translation
- Praises a translation that is direct and unpretentious
“I felt like some watcher of the skies”
- Simile, comparing himself to the astronomer, Herschel (discovered Uranus)
- Wonder and awe at experiencing something for the first time
- Romantic values, idea of knowledge being gained in this spiritual experience
“Or like Stout Cortez when with eagle eyes”
“Eagle eyes” - position of power
- Emphasising the experience of viewing something for the first time and the wonder associated with this - sublime nature of the “pacific”
“and all his men look’d at each other with a wild surmise”
- Mimics how Keats’ intends the audience to react to his poem
- The feeling of anticipation the audience will have an inclination to read Chapman’s Homer
- Transformation between Keats having read the poem and before he read it
“Silent, upon a peak”
- Leaves the audience with a sense of anticipation and reflection
Poem form
Petrarchan sonnet
- Coming from a genuine moment of inspiration where Keats wrote this after reading the translation
- Romantic, fueled by an emotional response
Homer (AO3)
- Homer is the presumed author of ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’
- These two epic poems are considered the foundational works of Ancient Greek literature, and by extension, all Western literature
Romanticism and the classical world (AO3)
- 2nd gen Romantics looked back at Classical past as a more spiritual era than their own
- Romantics explored a fascination with ancient Greece and Rome
