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Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  5940 John Keats 1795-1821 John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

5940 John Keats 1795-1821 John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:5940
AUTHOR:John Keats (1795–1821)
QUOTATION: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 stared at the Pacific, and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise,
  Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
ATTRIBUTION:On first looking into Chapman’s Homer.
WORKS:John Keats Collection.