JOHN KEATS

On first looking into Chapman s Homer

TVyj UCH 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.

hen I have Fears that I may cease to be

"VV7HEN I have fears that I may cease to be

• ^ Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,

Before high-piled books, in charact'ry, Hold like full garners the full-ripen'd grain; When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And feel that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour! That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love; then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think, Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

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