Ocean views

I have been updating my Homer collections recently - specifically catching up with Christopher Logue's interpretation of the Iliad.  Then Glo said in a comment that she couldn't recall me mentioning Keats (I think I did give you La Belle Dame Sans Merci once, however).  These two thoughts came together, and here is John Keats' On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer:

Much have I travell'd 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.

Comments

[glo]

I remember very well La Belle Dame sans Merci but didn't recall it was from Keats. I would have rather attributed it to John Donne since I remember that you have published several of his poems.
Thank you for this poem. It is nice and has such a sweet musicality and rhythm. It is also quite classic and, to some extend, pompous -not in a deprecating sense though. I mean that it quite recalls or mimics Homer poetry, which is a rather common thing in young poets. And this is definitely different poetry from Tennysson's Break, Break, Break.
Keats was only 24 when he died and I suspect that he didn't live long enough to build up his own style as a poet, unlike Tennyson.
In my reading, I have decided to focus on the love poems since the film is about his love experience. If I find a very nice one, I'll tell you later on.
PS Thank you for your answer on TS Eliot too.