View source for On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

{{Short description|1816 sonnet by John Keats}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2020}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
"'''On First Looking into Chapman's Homer'''" is a [[sonnet]] written by the English [[Romanticism|Romantic]] poet [[John Keats]]. Written in October 1816, it tells of Keats' sense of wonder and amazement upon first reading [[Odyssey (George Chapman translation)|the translation]] of the ''[[Odyssey]]'' by [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] playwright [[George Chapman]]. The poem has become an oft-quoted classic that is cited to demonstrate the emotional power of a great work of art and its ability to evoke an [[epiphany (feeling)|epiphany]] in its beholder.

[[File:On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.png|thumb|Autograph manuscript of an early draft of the poem ([[Harvard Library]])]]

==Background information==
Keats's generation was familiar enough with the polished literary translations of [[John Dryden]] and [[Alexander Pope]], which gave Homer an urbane gloss similar to [[Virgil]] but was expressed in [[blank verse]] or [[heroic couplet]]s. [[Charles Cowden Clarke]] and John Keats both had a scrappy awareness of Pope’s translation<ref name=":5">{{Citation |title=John Keats ON FIRST LOOKING INTO CHAPMAN'S HOMER analysis {{!}} POEM BACKGROUND & ROMANTICISM CONTEXT |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP7LRPgUZuY |access-date=2023-09-30 |language=en}}</ref> and the most famous passages of Homer.<ref name=":5" /> Chapman's vigorous and earthy paraphrase (1616) was put before Keats by Clarke, a friend from his days as a pupil at a boarding school in [[Enfield Town]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://englishhistory.net/keats/describe.html#5 |title=John Keats: Contemporary Descriptions: The poet described by those who knew him best |publisher=englishhistory.net |access-date=2010-07-22}}</ref> who was integral in Keats’s poetic education.<ref name=":5" />

Charles Cowden Clarke had been lent a copy of Chapman’s Homer that was circulating around friends of [[Leigh Hunt]],<ref name=":5" /> co-founder and editor of [[The Examiner (1808–1886)|''The Examiner'']].<ref name=":5" /> They sat up together till daylight to read it: "Keats shouting with delight as some passage of especial energy struck his imagination. At ten o'clock the next morning, Mr. Clarke found the sonnet on his breakfast-table."

The poem was first published in ''The Examiner'' on 1 December 1816. It was later published in a collection called ''Poems'' in 1817.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-09 |title=On First Looking into Chapman's Homer {{!}} poem by Keats {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/On-First-Looking-into-Chapmans-Homer |access-date=2023-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309181337/https://www.britannica.com/topic/On-First-Looking-into-Chapmans-Homer |archive-date=9 March 2023 }}</ref>

==Poem==
{{Poem quote|
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 [[Hernán Cortés|Cortez]] when with eagle eyes
    He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
    Silent, upon a peak in [[Darién Gap|Darien]].
|title=John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" (1816)<ref>{{cite book |title=The Poems of John Keats |last=Keats |first=John |author-link=John Keats |editor-last=Sélincourt |editor-first=Ernest De |editor-link=Ernest de Sélincourt |date=1905 |location=New York |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |oclc=11128824 |url=https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohnkeats00keat |page=[https://archive.org/details/poemsofjohnkeats00keat/page/36 36]}}</ref>}}

[[File:On-First-Looking-Into-Chapman’s-Homer-LibriVox-Vorbis.ogg|thumb|Leonard Wilson’s LibriVox reading of the poem]]

==Analysis==
[[File:Vasco Núñez de Balboa (E. Pérez) 01.jpg|thumb|Statue in [[Madrid]] of [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]] reaching forward; he led the first Europeans to see the [[Pacific Ocean]].]]
[[File:Discovery of Uranus1781.png|thumb|Position of [[Uranus]] (marked with cross) on the night of 13 March 1781, when Herschel discovered it.]]
The "realms of gold" in the opening line seem to imply worldly riches until the name of [[Homer]] appears, then they are recognised as literary and cultural realms. The gold in this case refers to the intellectual and emotional rewards of literature.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=LitCharts |url=https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/john-keats/on-first-looking-into-chapman-s-homer |access-date=2023-09-30 |website=LitCharts |language=en}}</ref> Of the many deities worshipped in the cultures of the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]], the god to whom the bards owe the most in fealty is [[Apollo]], the leader of the inspiring [[Muses]] and Greek god of poetry and music.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APOLLO - Greek God of Music, Prophecy & Healing |url=https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Apollon.html |access-date=2023-09-30 |website=Theoi Greek Mythology |language=en}}</ref> The Western islands is a reference to the Western Canon.<ref name=":0" /> [[Delos]] is the sacred island that was Apollo's birthplace.

The second quatrain introduces "one wide expanse" that was ruled by Homer, but Keats had only “been told” of it as he could not read the original Greek<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-09-28 |title=Keats Notes |url=https://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/211/keats/keats_notes.htm |access-date=2023-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928183423/https://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/211/keats/keats_notes.htm |archive-date=28 September 2022 }}</ref> (most cultured Englishmen of the time were only familiar with Latin). The "wide expanse" might have been a horizon of land or sea, but in Keats's ”pure serene”, it is sensed as encompassing the whole atmosphere. Chapman's voice then rings out. This sense of fresh discovery brings the reader to the [[Volta (literature)|volta]]: "Then felt I...".

The reference to a "new planet" would have been important to Keats’s contemporary readers because of the recent discovery of [[Uranus]] with a telescope in 1781 by [[William Herschel]], Court Astronomer to [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]]. News of Herschel's discovery was sensational, as it was the first "new" planet to be discovered since [[Ancient history|antiquity]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2021-07-25 |title=Planet Uranus {{!}} Royal Museums Greenwich |url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/planet-uranus |access-date=2023-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725121105/https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/planet-uranus |archive-date=25 July 2021 }}</ref>

Herschel was not the first person to have seen Uranus, but he was the person to have it recognised by the world as a planet.<ref name=":1" /> Keats may have read about Herschel’s discovery in the last chapter<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bonnycastle |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPBYAAAAYAAJ&q=Uranus&pg=PA392 |title=An Introduction to Astronomy: In a Series of Letters from a Preceptor to His Pupil. In which the Most Useful and Interesting Parts of the Science are Clearly and Familiarly Explained. Illustrated with Copper-plates |date=1786 |publisher=J. Johnson |language=en}}</ref> of a book he won while at Enfield Academy,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-21 |title=Mapping Keats's Progress: 1803-1811: Clarke's Academy in Enfield, Keats's Education, & the Headmaster's Son |url=https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/1803.html |access-date=2023-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321002749/https://johnkeats.uvic.ca/1803.html |archive-date=21 March 2023 }}</ref> an Introduction to Astronomy by Johnny Bonnycastle (published 1807). The author compares reading Homer's poetry through Chapman's translation to discovering a new world through a telescope. The translation helps Keats appreciate the significance of Homer's poetry. Through Chapman's translation, Homer's preservation of the ancient Greek world comes to life with patience and perseverance<ref name=":0" /> in reading. Keats was thrilled by the gift of discovery,<ref name=":3" /> similar to Herschel.

Members of [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]]'s expedition were the first Europeans to see the eastern shore of the Pacific (1513), but Keats chose to use [[Hernán Cortés]]. "Darien" refers to [[Darién Province]], in [[Panama]]. Keats had read [[William Robertson (historian)|William Robertson]]'s ''History of America''<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2022-05-21 |title=On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer by John Keats - Scottish Poetry Library |url=https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/first-looking-chapmans-homer/ |access-date=2023-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521062234/https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/first-looking-chapmans-homer/ |archive-date=21 May 2022 }}</ref> as a library book from Enfield Academy,<ref name=":5" /> and apparently conflated two scenes that it describes: Balboa's view of the Pacific and Cortés's first view of the [[Tenochtitlán|Valley of Mexico]] (1519).

The Balboa passage: "At length the [[Indians of the American South|Indians]] assured them, that from the top of the next mountain they should discover the ocean which was the object of their wishes. When, with infinite toil, they had climbed up the greater part of the steep ascent, Balboa commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the [[South Seas|South Sea]] stretching in endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees, and lifting up his hands to Heaven, returned thanks to God, who had conducted him to a discovery so beneficial to his country, and so honourable to himself. His followers, observing his transports of joy, rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and gratitude" (Vol. III).

In retrospect, Keats's use of Cortés rather than Balboa as the person to introduce the Pacific Ocean to the wider world may have been serendipitously insightful. This is because the first translation of Homer into English was done by Arthur Hall in 1581.<ref name=":2" /> However, Hall’s translation, while earlier, like Balboa’s sighting of the Pacific that was earlier than Cortés’s, did not have as renowned and impactful a reception as Chapman’s later translation did.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2002-06-20 |title=Chapmania |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jun/20/homer |access-date=2023-09-30 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

Before Cortés's 1519–21 [[conquest of the Aztec Empire]], Cortés had been a colonist, administrator and conquistador in [[Hispaniola]] (from 1504) and Cuba (from 1511). Cortés never traveled to Darién but may have seen the Pacific after his conquest of the [[Aztec Empire]] or during his 1524–1526 visit to Honduras. Later during his governorship of Mexico, Cortés was a major explorer of the Pacific coast of [[Mexico]]<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2023-03-30 |title=Hernán Cortés - Facts, Quotes & Route |url=https://www.biography.com/history-culture/hernan-cortes |access-date=2023-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330084951/https://www.biography.com/history-culture/hernan-cortes |archive-date=30 March 2023 }}</ref> and [[Baja California]].<ref name=":4" />

Since Cortés was never in Darién, Keats made a historical error. The standard critical view is that Keats simply remembered the grand but separate images of Cortés and of Darien, rather than their historical contexts. In retrospect, Keats's historical error does not diminish from the poem’s literary impact, and likewise suggests that Chapman’s inaccuracies (Chapman gets details wrong, adds entire lines and has his own interpretation<ref name=":2" />) do not diminish the poetic impact of Chapman’s Homer.

Homer's "pure serene" has prepared the reader for the ''Pacific'' and so the analogy now expressed in the [[simile]] that identifies the wide expanse of Homer's [[demesne]] with the vast Pacific, which stuns its discoverers into silence, is felt to be the more just.

The [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] is the largest and deepest ocean on Earth. It represents a vast and deep new frontier that has an all-encompassing influence on the islands (Homer is the original influence for other poets) and facilitates connection and cultural exchange between communities. Cortés wonders at the ocean’s significance and beauty, and his understanding of the world is transformed by contemplating the encounter.

Keats felt amazed by the beauty and meaning of Homer’s poetry when he read Chapman's translation. He compared it to discovering the Pacific, due to its vastness (large cast of characters in a 10-year war who span the emotional palette), depth (in the sense that literature rewards [[close reading]], in the depth of motivations and emotions, the depth to which the themes of mortality, destiny, morality, identity inform the [[human condition]]), and Homer's influence as the first and  greatest written poet in the [[Western canon|Western Canon]].<ref name=":2" /> He enjoyed (particularly with [[Charles Cowden Clarke|Clarke]], with whom the poem was first commemorated before being extended to the public) how poetry can connect people in shared wonder and contemplation.

Keats’s poetry engages the old (Uranus, the Pacific, Homer) with new eyes and fresh appreciation. It is filled with a sense of wonder, inspiration, joy, excitement, adventure and possibility at discovering the amazing made accessible (in Herschel’s and Cortés’s findings, Chapman’s English). This expands one’s horizons with life’s mysteries (the nature of free will, whether Homer was a group or a person,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-01 |title=Who was Homer? {{!}} British Museum |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/who-was-homer |access-date=2023-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231001033522/https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/who-was-homer |archive-date=1 October 2023 }}</ref> whether the Trojan war is historical fact<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-07-13 |title=Did the Trojan War actually happen? - BBC Culture |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200106-did-the-trojan-war-actually-happen |access-date=2023-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230713183242/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200106-did-the-trojan-war-actually-happen |archive-date=13 July 2023 }}</ref>), beauty (in expressiveness, relatable characters and timeless themes) and grandeur (as [[Epic poetry|epic]] [[myth]]ology, preserving Greek values and ideals of the good life<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-31 |title=The Greeks - The Importance of Homer |website=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/3b_p1.html |access-date=2023-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331102824/https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/3b_p1.html |archive-date=31 March 2023 }}</ref>).

Before the poem was published, Keats altered "wondr'ing eyes" (in the original manuscript) to "eagle eyes" and "Yet could I never judge what Men could mean" (which was the seventh line even in the first publication in ''[[The Examiner (1808–1886)|The Examiner]]'') to "Yet did I never breathe its pure serene".

==Structure==
This poem is a [[Petrarchan sonnet]],<ref name=":5" /> also known as an Italian sonnet.<ref name=":5" /> It is divided into an [[octave (poetry)|octave]] (the first 8 lines introducing the problem of not reading Homer) and a [[sestet]] (the last 6 lines introducing the solution of Chapman’s translation and how it makes Keats feel). It follows a [[rhyme scheme]] of ABBAABBACDCDCD.<ref name=":5" /> After the main idea has been introduced and the image played upon in the octave, the poem undergoes a [[Volta (literature)|volta]] (here “Then felt I…”), a change in the [[Persona#In literature|persona]]'s train of thought. The octave offers the poet as a literary explorer, but the volta brings in the discovery of Chapman's Homer, the subject of which is further expanded through the use of imagery and comparisons which convey the poet's sense of awe at the discovery.

As is typical of sonnets in English, the metre is [[iambic pentameter]] though not all of the lines scan perfectly (line 12 has an extra syllable, for example).

==Cultural references==
*[[Edgar Allan Poe]] was inspired by Keats's writing about the discovery of Uranus when he wrote his early poem "[[Al Aaraaf]]" (1829).<ref>Meyers, Jeffrey. ''Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy''. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992: 45–46. {{ISBN|0-8154-1038-7}}</ref>
* The book ''[[1066 and All That]]'', a parody of school history textbooks, contains two references to the poem. The first is the following extract: "A [[Darien Scheme]]. The Scots were now in a skirling uproar because James II was the last of the Scottish Kings and England was under the rule of the Dutch Orange; it was therefore decided to put them in charge of a very fat man called Cortez and transport them to a Peak in Darien, where it was hoped they would be more silent". The second is in a mock test paper, question 2 is "Outline joyfully (1) Henry VIII, (2) Stout Cortez."
*[[Frances Power Cobbe]] analysed the poem in her essay "The Peak in Darien: the riddle of death" in ''The Peak in Darien with some other inquiries touching concerns of the soul and the body: an octave of essays'', Boston. 1882.<ref>{{cite book |author=Cobbe, Frances Power |title=The peak in Darien with some other inquiries touching concerns of the soul and the body: an octave of essays |publisher=Geo. H. Ellis |location=Boston |year=1882 |isbn=0-7905-7329-6 }}<br>{{cite web |url=http://lms01.harvard.edu/F/JQQH42CHSQ7I395Q4GF21VPENYQQBPMP4CQEQXFQC34IBJL5G2-31928?func=direct&doc_number=002465469 |title=HOLLIS Classic FULL CATALOG - Full View of Record  |publisher=Harvard University Library |access-date=2009-07-03}}</ref>
* [[Henry James]] refers to Keats's sonnet in Book 2 of ''[[The Golden Bowl]]'' (1904), in his description of Adam Verver's discovery of his passion for collecting objects of art.
* Charles Olson alludes to Keats's poem in his epic ''[[The Maximus Poems]]'' with the poem "On first Looking out through Juan de la Cosa's Eyes".<ref>{{cite book|title=A Guide to the Maximus Poems|year=1980|author=George F. Butterick}}</ref>
* In a postscript to ''The Clicking of Cuthbert'', [[P. G. Wodehouse]] says "In the second chapter I allude to Stout Cortez staring at the Pacific. Shortly after the appearance of this narrative in serial form in America, I received an [[anonymous letter]] containing the words, "You big stiff, it wasn't Cortez, it was Balboa." On the other hand, if Cortez was good enough for Keats, he is good enough for me. Besides, even if it was Balboa, the Pacific was open to being stared at about that time, and I see no reason why Cortez should not have had a look at it as well."<ref>{{cite book |author=P.G. Wodehouse |author-link=P.G. Wodehouse |title=The Clicking of Cuthbert |year=1922}}</ref>
* In the [[P. G. Wodehouse]] novel ''The Inimitable Jeeves'', [[Bertie Wooster]] states that his cousins "looked at each other, like those chappies in the poem, with a wild surmise."<ref>{{cite book|last=Wodehouse|first=P.G.|title=The Inimitable Jeeves|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.509243|year=1923|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=0-14-028412-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.509243/page/n132 132]}}</ref>
* In the [[P.G. Wodehouse]] novel ''Aunts Aren't Gentlemen'', when [[Bertie Wooster]] finds himself suddenly engaged, he states that he stood frozen, "eyes bulging like those of the fellows I've heard Jeeves mention, who looked at each other with a wild surmise, silent upon a peak in Darien."<ref>{{cite book|title=Aunts Aren't Gentlemen|year=1971|author=P.G. Wodehouse|author-link=P.G. Wodehouse}}</ref>
* In the [[P. G. Wodehouse|P.G. Wodehouse]] novel ''Uncle Fred in the Springtime'', Claude Pott's first encounter with Lord Bosham is described thus: "For a long instant he stood staring silently at Lord Bosham with the same undisguised interest which stout Cortez had once displayed when inspecting the Pacific. It is scarcely exaggerating to say that Mr Pott was feeling as if a new planet had swum into his ken."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wodehouse |first=P.G. |title=Uncle Fred in the Springtime |publisher=Penguin |year=1939 |isbn=0140284621 |pages=160}}</ref>
* The first chapter of [[Arthur Ransome]]'s ''[[Swallows and Amazons]]'' is titled "A Peak in Darien" and is headed with the last four lines of the sonnet. Titty gives the name "Darien" to the headland from which the Swallows first see the lake. The quotation crops up again in ''[[Peter Duck]]'', prompting Bill to ask "Who's fat Cortez?"
* [[Brian O'Nolan]] used Keats and Chapman as running characters in his "Cruiskeen Lawn" columns in the ''[[Irish Times]]'', usually living out [[shaggy dog stories]] leading up to increasingly elaborate puns.
* [[Freya Stark]] alludes to the poem in the title of "A Peak in Darien" (London, 1976).
* [[Vladimir Nabokov]] refers to the poem in his novel ''[[Pale Fire]]'' when the fictional poet John Shade mentions a newspaper headline that attributes a recent [[Boston Red Sox]] victory to "Chapman's Homer" (i.e. to a [[home run]] by a player named Chapman).
* Australian poet [[Peter Porter (poet)|Peter Porter]] opens the fourth of  "The Sanitised Sonnets" with the allusion: "Much have I travelled in the realms of gold/ for which I thank the Paddington and Westminster/ Public Libraries" (London, 1970).
* [[Gilbert Adair]] wrote a long article entitled "On First Looking into Chaplin's Humour".
* [[Tobias Wolff]] references the last line of the sonnet ("Silent, upon a peak in Darien") in "Bullet in the Brain," which focuses on the death of a doomed critic obsessed with errors and mocking them. 
* In the Season 5 episode "[[Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning]]" of the sitcom ''[[30 Rock]]'', [[Alec Baldwin]]'s character, Jack Donaghy, quotes the poem while musing on his new start as an executive for the company Kabletown. [[Tracy Morgan]]'s character, Tracy Jordan, later mentions "Stout Cortez" (his gardener), as well.
* New Zealand artist [[Michael Parekowhai]] created a monumental artwork entitled "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" for the Venice Biennale 2011. 
* Historian of science Edward B. (Ted) Davis published a pastiche, "On First, Looking into Chapman's Homer", about a long home run by [[Mickey Mantle]], in ''Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature'' 29(1), Fall 2011/Winter 2012, p.&nbsp;35 (but it actually appeared in August 2013). The addition of a comma in Keats's title provides an indispensable pun—a clue to the reader about the subject of the pastiche. Davis writes how "stout Mantle" stood and "Watch’d his ball just rise and rise and rise – Silent, above a park in Washington."
* The title of [[Patrick Kavanagh]]'s poem "On Looking into E. V. Rieu's Homer", about [[E. V. Rieu]]'s Homer translations, is an allusion on the title of Keats's poem.
* In [[Saki]]'s story "The Talking-out of Tarrington", a character is greeted with a {{"'}}silent-upon-a-peak-in-Darien' stare which denoted an absence of all previous acquaintance with the object scrutinised".
* [[G. K. Chesterton]], in his poem "The Logical Vegetarian", uses "I am silent on a bally peak in Darien" to mock vegetarian grandiosity.<ref>{{cite web|title=Collected Poems|url=https://archive.org/stream/collectedpoemsof00ches/collectedpoemsof00ches_djvu.txt}}</ref>
* In the second volume of [[Richard Dawkins]]'s autobiography, ''[[Brief Candle in the Dark]]'', he alludes to the poem in chapter three, "Lore of the Jungle", when he describes going mountain climbing in Panama (p.&nbsp;43).
* The [[progressive rock]] band [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]], used a phrase from the poem as the title of their song "[[Watcher of the Skies]]", on the 1972 album [[Foxtrot (album)|''Foxtrot'']], and specifically referred to subject matter of the poem with the line describing an interplanetary visitor to Earth who: "Raising his eyes beholds a planet unknown".
* In the short story “Notes to My Biographer,” by [[Adam Haslett]], the story’s unreliable narrator and protagonist quotes from this poem when addressing and hoping to inspire his adult son.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikisource|On First Looking into Chapman's Homer}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-keats/poetry|Display Name=An omnibus collection of Keats's poetry|noitalics=true}}
* [http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/chapmanshomer.html Discusses the creation of the poem, and also shows the original manuscript.]
*[https://archive.org/details/iliadandodyssey00homegoog Chapman's Homer: The Iliads and The Odysseys]

{{John Keats}}
{{Odyssey navbox}}
{{Iliad navbox}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer}}
[[Category:Poetry by John Keats]]
[[Category:Sonnets]]
[[Category:1816 poems]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Homer]]