Talk:On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

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Nominate for featured article? Stunning work,everyone! Andycjp 15/05/04

[edit] Cortez vs. Balboa.

I remember reading somewhere that Keats was actually not mistaken when he compares himself to Cortez.

Balboa discovered the Pacific. Homer wrote the epics. Chapman translated them

Cortez looked at the Pacific through Balboa's eyes (I think there is no proof that Cortez saw the pacific himself) Keats is looking at the epics through Chapman's eyes.

Both of them have not seen the true beauty of something so wonderful with their own eyes.

I don't think that's a sound reading, since "stout Cortez" is being paralleled to the astronomer (Herschel presumably in K's mind) who discovers a new planet. The point is that Keats's own experience of encountering a great poet is like a totally new discovery of something of monumental significance. The article's current position of justifying the Cortez cite is frankly a lot of gobbledygook, and the special pleading inherent in claiming that Keats was "keenly interested in history" and so wouldn't make such a mistake is embarrassing. Keats relied for his knowledge on a book by William Robertson called History of America, which includes separate passages describing Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean from a peak in Darien and Cortez's first survey of Mexico City from a high point. If you read them, you'll find they're very similar, and the most reasonable conclusion is that Keats confused them in his memory. 71.136.180.15 (talk) 08:20, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Stout" Cortez

This has always seemed unfair. Why bring his body type into the poem? Bah humbug, Keats!

(M Padman) 'stout' used to mean 'brave' and is used in English public schools to describe someone as a 'stout fellow'. Incidentally neither Cortez nor Bilbao 'discovered' the Pacific. It was always there. It was found by them but what credit goes to the Indians who knew about it for ages and showed it to the so called 'explorer' who went where no humans went, meaning where no whites had ever gone.....

[edit] Criticism

I have removed the following after researching its veritability; if some reference for it can be found, it should be replaced:

'When this poem was first published, critics drew attention to the fact that Keats was not classically educated, depending on a translation of Homer rather than being able to read the Greek original. Keats was deeply upset at being rejected for reasons of social class, but this did not stop him using classical themes in his later work.'

OES23 14:23, 26 September 2007 (UTC)