by Keats · Cluster: Wonder and Gratitude · Sublime · Storm
Abstract
Petrarchan sonnet figuring the discovery of Homer through Chapman as an astronomer’s or explorer’s awe; the sublime of reading, wonder and literary discovery.
Connections
Motifs: Book Reading, Stars Themes & Concepts: Sublime, Wonder and Gratitude Forms & Genres: Petrarchan Sonnet Historical References: Classical Antiquity
Testo integrale / Full text
Much have I traveled 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.