Background: Keats (1795-1821) was a major figure in the Romantic movement. His poetry included “Hyperion,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” A key feature of understanding this poem is the recognition that Chapman produced a translation of Homer’s epics which made them “come alive,” as it were, for Keats.
Disscussion questions:
What does it mean to “travel in realms of gold” (l. 1)? What is it that bards hold in fealty to Apollo? (l. 4) What does Keats mean when he says he “was told” that Homer ruled his “demesne”? (ll. 5-6) What does Keats mean when he says he could never breath “its pure serene”? (l. 7)
The last six lines of the sonnet speak of the “transformation” that Keats undergoes upon reading Chapman’s rendition of the Homeric epics. He uses two principal metaphors — that of an astronomer and (mistakenly) that of Cortez. How do these examples function in the poem to express Keats’ intention?
The sonnet refers to transformative insights experienced by Keats; how does the poetry refer to themes of this section of the intellectual journey?