Some of Me Poetry

[undyingking]

It's National Poetry Day! – so to celebrate, here's one of my favourite short poems, John Keats's 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer', which he wrote when he was just 21:

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-browed 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.

I like this poem because I think it conveys ably the sense of wonder a reader can feel on encountering a new literary experience. I've never read Chapman's translation of Homer myself, but there've been plenty of other things that have made me feel 'like some new planet swam into my ken'. Structurally, the poem is a great example of how to write a Petrarchan sonnet, and takes good advantage of the two parts of the form to make the point of its story. But most importantly, the closing image is to me a fantastically powerful one. (Arthur Ransome must have thought so too, as he uses it repeatedly in the Swallows and Amazons books.)

It is perhaps slightly unfortunate that it was actually Balboa, not Cortez, who led the first European expedition to look upon the Pacific. But we can forgive Keats that.

Finally, here's the same thing in the form of a limerick, even more concise:

There once was a Homer translation,
That showed me a novel sensation:
Like Cortez's men,
Standing on Darien,
I breathed the serene of Creation.

Comments

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Is the name of the Limericist recorded?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Shame Modesty forbids its revelation :-)

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

I rather liked it actually!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It was written in response to a challenge, possibly set by metame or some such person, to use the limerick form for the purposes normally assumed to 'serious' poetry.

(This must have been ten years ago or more. But fortunately limericks are quite easy to remember…)

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

I'm rather partial to John Lyly's 1584 poem Cupid and Campaspe.

"Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses—Cupid paid:
He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,
His mother's doves, and team of sparrows;
Loses them too; then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose
Growing on's cheek (but none knows how);
With these, the crystal of his brow,
And then the dimple of his chin:
All these did my Campaspe win.
At last he set her both his eyes,
She won, and Cupid blind did rise.
O Love! has she done this to thee?
What shall (alas!) become of me?"

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Nice one, I like that!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I remember as a child, I always used to think about the 'peak in Darien'. Loved those books.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

You have an off-by-one error, surely?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Shh, I was hoping no-one would notice…

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Clicking through to view your reply in its native habitat, I found myself watching an advert for scientology.org on your LJ.

Which reminds me that when I first met you, I thought "He's an OT VIII if anyone is."

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I've certainly had plenty of auditing done. But not that kind.

I hope you clicked on the ad; that's funding my hedonistic lifestyle, you know.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Clicked on it? Pretty much. Or more acurately, launched a DDOS attack against them from a million-strong botnet, with an 88 byte payload as follows:

"scientologists are woopsies and have no cajones for legal retribution, love undyingking"

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

*Snork!*

[vigornian.livejournal.com]

Nice limerick!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Thank you! See new comment above explaining its genesis…