Much Have I Travelled

Poem

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.

John Keats

Music

Symphony No. 6 in F, ‘Pastoral’, Op. 68: V., Beethoven
The Philadelphia Orchestra, Riccardo Muti

Image

Au Pied du Sinaï, Toulouse-Lautrec
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington