On first looking into Chapman’s Homer

John Keats

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.

Fonte (versos 9-14): Dawkins, R. 2000. Desvendando o arco-íris. SP, Companhia das Letras. Poema publicado em livro em 1817.