On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

The first quatrain concludes with the image of bards, whose oral productions first carried the Homeric corpus before they were finally committed to writing. John Keats extends this forward in his characterization of Chapman, having him “speak out loud and bold” (Line 8), tying him to the traditional apparatus of Homer, while suggesting an advancement of that tradition. Once again, Keats ends his quatrain with an aural sensation, creating a repetition of speaking that concludes the octave. And while the wider context of the poem sees the sestet supporting the statement of the octave, in this sense, the stunned silence that emanates from the sestet is a refutation of the original motif. With the implied quiet of the watery universe, and the implicit “Silent” (Line 14) of Cortez’s reaction, the poem embodies the experience Keats is celebrating, first the speaking of Chapman’s hallowed words, then the rapt silence in which potential and mystery churn.

In the first quatrain, Keats luxuriates in the lavishness of sight, describing travels in “realms of gold” (Line 1) before claiming to have seen “many goodly states and kingdoms” (Line 2) and rounded “many western islands” (Line 3).