Analysis On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer

“On first looking into” the poem under study, one may discern some of its formal features. It is written by John Keats after first reading an awe-inspiring translation of Homer into English by Chapman. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD and is dominated with the presence of the sound “I” that suggests a subjective individualistic quest of “poetic truth” in a seemingly lyric text. This is a sonnet made up of two stanzas which develop two aspects of a main theme: Homer’s poetry and its effects on the speaker. The two parts are complementary in that they depict a chain of events, ideas and thoughts hence the use of “Yet” and “Then” that bespeak the progression of the experience and its momentous aftermaths. Yet, this world view is soon challenged in the second part of the poem by an experience that alters the aesthetic, psychological and existential spheres of meaning in the poem. …show more content…
The latter is usually, and quite reductively, associated exclusively with love and nature. Yet, what makes texts “romantic” is, first and foremost, subjective imagination in relation to Nature. As such, one would expect this text to dwell on some feelings raised by an otherwise “unromantic” occasion: “First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”. This title provides the framework of the text: “First looking into” a translated Homer is likened to the exploration of a new, if poetical, universe. “Looking into” this work suggests that it overwhelmed the speaker and kindled their curiosity. Moreover, exploration is expressed through the genitive “Chapman’s Homer”. This text is a gateway to an unknown universe by means of this translation. As such, the title of this poem can be likened to a topic sentence providing the setting of the forthcoming events and, thus, preparing the poem’s mood by specifying the stimulus behind