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A sonnet is a poem which expresses a thought or idea and develops it, often cleverly and wittily. The change in role can also be demonstrated by comparing the two geographical locations mentioned in the poem. ‘Darien, mentioned after the volta, is in Central America.The contrast between the old world and the new show that Keats feels he is now making his own new, fresh, unseen literature, not exploring the work of others. This is also, in its length and the way in which it diverges from the literal subject of the poem, a “Homeric” metaphor. The title refers to George Chapman, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who wrote a translation of Homer’s Odyssey.
The sonnet genre is often, although not always, about ideals or hypothetical situations. It reaches back to the Medieval Romances, where a woman is loved and idealised by a worshipping admirer. For example, Sir Philip Sydney in the Astrophil and Stella sonnet sequence wrote in this mode. Poems were circulated within groups of educated intellectuals and they did not necessarily reflect the poet’s true emotions, but were a form of intellectual showing-off! This may not have been true of all; it is a matter of academic debate today. It is generally believed, however, that Shakespeare’s sonnets were autobiographical.
The Full Text of “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer”
As the story goes, a twenty-something-year-old Keats read a translation of Homer’s works by Elizabethan poet and dramatist George Chapman. On a night in 1816, he read the work with his friend Charles Cowden Clarke; when Clarke awoke the next morning, he found that Keats had written “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” and left it for him as a gift. The common rhyme is an “old” sound, such as words, hold, gold told, and bold, which define the octave of the poem. The meter is also present in the latter part of the piece with alternations between eyes and skies, or men and ken. The challenge is manifested in the fact that the line number is predetermined to be six plus six, and each section needs to have its own theme, context, as well as meters. Therefore, by understanding and seeing these format rules of an Italian sonnet, it becomes more apparent how challenging it is to create such a poem.
But his reading of Chapman’s translation of Homer’s epics gave him greater pleasure than he received from earlier readings. He was highly inspired by his reading of Homer through Chapman. Keats says that he has read a number of books of adventurous and romantic tales. His reading has been like traveling in the different countries of the mind – the countries of imagination and fancy. They have given him pleasure as much as the sight of the realm of gold would give a poor man. Further, Keats says that he has explored the noble and pleasure-giving world of adventurous romances.
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer”
He never traveled to Darién but may have seen the Pacific sometime after his conquest of the Aztec Empire or during his 1524–1526 visit to Honduras. Later during his governorship of Mexico, Cortés was a major explorer of the Pacific coast of Mexico and Baja California. At the break in the sonnet — in Italian after the first eight lines, in English after twelve lines — there is a ‘turn’ or volta, after which there will be a change or new perspective on the preceding idea.
Chapman was a contemporary of Shakespeare in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Shakespeare actually probably read Chapman's translations; that's probably where he got his Homer. John Keats wrote a poem called 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.' Explore why Keats wrote this sonnet, what the structure, subject, and meaning of it is, and also discover the features of a sonnet. On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer was the second poem that John Keats (1795–1821) had published, although it was far from being the first that he had written.
Related summaries: books by John Keats
I am a retired librarian, living in a village in Leicestershire. I write fiction and poetry, plus articles on literature, history, and much more besides. Keats and his readers are truly in a new world – a rather cinematic one.
He also makes it part of himself; absorbing it shows the extent to which he is devoted to art – he literally lives and breathes it. His use of an adjective in place of a noun “pure serene” is evidence that he struggled within the restrictions of our language, which would eventually prompt him to move onto Shakespearian formed sonnets. The poet begins his poem with the depiction of his travel ‘in the realms of gold’. It is a symbolic statement meaning that he has read about the riches of cultures and civilization which are as precious as gold in the world of literature. "“On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” by John Keats." IvyPanda, 5 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/on-first-looking-into-chapmans-homer-by-john-keats/. This is the lead-up to his revelation moment, which comes, not coincidentally, when the sestet starts - that's that turn that we talked about before.
Keats Tweets a Sonnet
When he talks about traveling in the 'realms of gold', he's actually doing two things. It's just like 'the pagemaster', and these 'realms' are like libraries, or the books themselves. But he's also making an allusion to Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey, (remember, he's reading a translation of Homer) who traveled a lot in that tale. The reference to Apollo works well with both meanings, because Apollo is the Greek god of poetry, so that goes with the book/library meaning.
Considered the poet’s first mature poem, the sonnet was inspired by Keats’s having pored over a 1616 folio edition of George Chapman’s English translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The speaker offers an interesting speculation about this delight in having discovered the Chapman translation. He is likely attempting to demonstrate both his knowledge of science and history with such musing upon his own enthusiasm.
Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. The metre usually chosen for sonnets is iambic pentameter, that is five iambs or metrical feet per line, where a iamb is one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. The effect is stately and rhythmic, and usually creates a solemn, dignified mood.
Cortez and his men, while standing on a peak of Darien, were quite surprised after seeing the vista of Oceans on either side of the mountain. This essay on “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” by John Keats was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. It was Balboa who did that first; who stood and saw the Pacific Ocean.
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