JOHN KEATS ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER [Written 1815] 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. LINES ON THE MERMAID TAVERN [Publ. 1820] SOULS of Poets dead and gone, Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern? I have heard that on a day To a sheepskin gave the story, |