Chapman

A detailed Summary of Chapman

On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer, is made of two distinct parts. In the first part of Keats's poem the speaker is expressing his experiences prior to reading Chapman's translation of Homer. At the beginning of the poem the speaker says, "Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold..."(Keats). The second section of the poem provides comparisons that contrast the speaker's revelatory experience after reading Chapman's translation of Homer.

Chapman's translations are alive with expressions, which brings forth various explanations about Homer. The speaker in Keats poem expresses how intense his new experiences are after reading the translations. The speaker uses two comparisons to explain his emotions after discovering Chapman's translation of Homer. These two comparisons are extremely different, even though both deal with discovery (Dilworth). It is obvious that the speaker has second thoughts on his first comparison because he speaks of the second in more emotion and detail.

After reading Chapman's translation of Homer he compares this revelatory experience to, "Then I felt like some watcher of the skies...When a new planet swims into his ken" (Keats). This comparison explains that reading these tran

Dilworth, Thomas. "Cortez in Keats's 'On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

The second comparison, "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," (Keats) focuses on how the speaker relates Homer's writings to a vast expansion much larger than a planet. The second comparison is also the climax of the poem. The high point of the poem is when Cortez stares at the Pacific. The speaker uses the Pacific Ocean to relay a message about his feelings towards his new discovery (Dilworth). An ocean, unlike a planet, is something on one's own plane that one can actually explore. However, it is something so big that it must contain many new islands within it. Understanding how complex an ocean is, we can identify the speaker's change of amazement in the poem. The tone has changed from a developed experience, "Much have I traveled" (Keats), to an experience of unawareness. The speaker has never breathed the air of the vast Homeric expanse, though others had, and had told him about it. When the speaker says, "Look'd at each other with a wild surmise," (Keats) he is vocalizing his revelation of finding an unsuspected ocean. The speaker's emoti

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Approximate Word count = 827
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Chapman

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