On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Sonnet- Summary

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer  

         Summary and Analysis

 

Section 1

Summery

In the principal half of the sonnet, the speaker thinks back on his excursions through Homer's epic universe. He isn't quick to visit these "domains of gold" and "western islands"; other youthful artists such as himself have made their journey through these mythic terrains, and thus observe themselves to be faithful to Apollo, the God of verse, who propelled their own work. In the wake of investing such a lot of energy in Homer's reality, the speaker believes he's seen its limits. Nonetheless, when he knows about Chapman's interpretations, his viewpoint changes.
Investigation
In the initial eight lines, or octave, the speaker sets up the poem's tone and subject, while additionally portending the change that will happen toward the start of line 9. He talks like a carefully prepared explorer who has solicited the globe: the wealth of monosyllabic words with long vowels loosen up each line, like the speaker is attempting to catch and contain the expansiveness of his excursions in sound of the words he employments. It's difficult to say where precisely the speaker is, however his language proposes that his view is wide and profound, as though he is talking through his inner being in memory, or from some nonexistent spot.
In the initial two lines, the speaker reflects upon his movements through "domains of gold" and "goodly states and realms." However, the sonnet's title, which unequivocally specifies Chapman's Homer, tells us that the speaker is alluding to an abstract excursion: he hasn't visited these domains face to face, or seen these states and realms with his own eyes, yet rather through the inventive experience of perusing. Also, on the grounds that the sonnet is about Chapman's Homer, we realize that the spots referenced in the primary line should allude to a dream of Homer's legends communicated by another interpreter. The main word, "Much," tells us that the speaker has as often as possible read these works.
Lines 3 and 4 proceed with the speaker's portrayal of his artistic journeys. He likewise navigated the "western islands" of Homer's reality, which different artists additionally observed to be a wellspring of motivation and delight. These writers, the "versifiers" of line 4, are "in fealty to," or hold devotion towards, Apollo, the Greek lord of workmanship and verse on the grounds that, as indicated by legend, his great graces would spell accomplishment for their innovative undertakings. This mention again makes us aware of the artistic idea of the speaker's movements, and the auxiliary nature by which he experiences Homer's work.
Then, at that point, in lines 5 and 6, the speaker depicts his impression of Homer's reality. He had regularly "been told" through crafted by past interpreters of the "one wide spread" over which Homer ruled. This span alludes to the epic universe of The Illiad and The Odyssey. Homer "runs the show" this universe on the grounds that the speaker can't peruse his work in Greek, its unique language. Along these lines, his experiences with Homer's work, regardless of how much the speaker has delighted in them, just uncover an impression of his stories' actual greatness. He envisions that Homer's unique work should be awesome, that no interpretation might at any point usurp the versifier from his privileged position.
Nonetheless, in lines 7 and 8, the speaker starts to adjust his perspective. He says he "never breathe[d]" the "unadulterated tranquil" of Homer's reality until hearing Chapman's voice. In this line, "tranquil" capacities as thing and signifies "a spread of clear sky or quiet ocean," repeating line 5. Notwithstanding, Chapman gives the speaker admittance to the stories' unadulterated breadth, pointing out the lucidity and nature of the interpreter's voice. It was like, beforehand, the speaker were looking across Homer's reality through a cloudy glass: presently, Chapman cleared the residue off of his focal points, and the universe is more extensive, more splendid, and more perfect that it was previously. The world the speaker sees resembles new, neglected landscape.
Since the speaker says he heard Chapman "stand up clearly and intense," we might be enticed to fail to remember that Keats never heard Chapman talk: the interpreter kicked the bucket during the 1630s, almost 150 years before Keats was conceived. This expression, then, at that point, alludes to Chapman's artistic voice: the style of Chapman's interpretation allows the speaker's recently unrestricted strides in Homer's universe. Line eight is likewise critical in light of the fact that it unpretentiously proposes that Chapman's interpretation is maybe better compared to Homer's unique: the speaker might have been told in the past of Homer's standard, however Chapman's clearly, intense voice difficulties this conviction. At last, the line makes way for the sonnet's volta, which for this situation is the change that happens in the speaker through his experience with Chapman's Homer.

 

 Section 2

Summery

The speaker portrays the impact of Chapman's interpretations upon him through two illustrations: first, the speaker feels like a cosmologist who has recently found another planet, and second, the speaker feels like Hernan Cortez, a Spanish conqueror popular for investigating Central America in the sixteenth century. In the last two lines, as the speaker pictures Cortez gazing intently at the Pacific, he likewise envisions his team checking out one another upon a mountain's pinnacle, high over a scene no other person from their local nation has looked at previously.
Investigation
In Keats' standard Petrarchan-work design, the sonnet's volta happens toward the start of line 9. "Then, at that point" flags the speaker's progress from depicting his past excursions in Homer's universe to articulating the change that happened inside him in the wake of perusing Chapman's interpretations. Moreover, "felt" connotes a change in being: the speaker sees Homer's universe with new eyes, yet he moves toward Homer's reality like he were a renewed individual. He isn't just another youthful writer who has gotten out and about through the western islands: he's a voyager in transit to new turf, a space expert who has recently made a surprising disclosure in the night sky's wide, sparkling field.
The sonnet's topics of journey and revelation are accentuated by the analogies the speaker uses to portray the change that happens inside him. By comparing himself to an another stargazer planet, and by comparing himself to the Spanish voyager, the speaker recommends that perusing Chapman's Homer resembles looking at another world, the first of his sort to set eyes upon such a grand sight. The stargazer's fortune shows up as information, while the most tempting component of new land for Cortez and his men is the chance of success and greatness. Similarly, these lines are loaded up with satisfaction and expectation, portrayed by the speaker's excitement to rediscover Homer's natural universe, made new.
The speaker's stand amazed at the possibilities of Chapman's Homer lines on eminent. Like Cortez's men, quiet and awestruck upon a mountain's pinnacle, the speaker moves toward Cortez's work with veneration. Regardless of whether the sestet is more centered around articulating the vibe of miracle, the last six lines proceed in the sonnet's visionary mode, in light of the fact that the speaker sets us up to envision what the space expert, Cortez, and Cortez's men should be seeing. The expression "hawk eyes" underlines the speaker's meticulousness as he investigates Chapman's Homer, while the pictures of the sea stretching out to the skyline and the view from the mountain's pinnacle compare the allegorical extension of the limits of Homer's reality.
As the sonnet closes peacefully, we could envision the speaker perusing as eager and anxious as can be, eagerly at the possibility of undertaking another journey through Homer's reality. Or on the other hand, we could picture him absentmindedly looking somewhere far off, his voice following off, campaigning to him the wide span of Homer's reality, the mountains and oceans that remained between Odysseus on his excursion home.