Looking Into Chapmans Homer

John Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” is commonly read as an expression of joy at discovering a new piece of art and its power to change readers’ perceptions. Throughout the poem the speaker uses different metaphors for discovery including travelling, finding a new planet, and Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean to convey the wonder he feels at reading Homer’s poetry for the first time. However, the metaphors the speaker chooses also suggest the conquest and dominance that accompanies discovery and gives the poem a darker undertone. If I were to write a paper about an alternate reading of this poem, I would track these metaphors and the ways these comparisons can suggest conquest and ownership in addition to discovery. I