The Nature of Writing's video: An Explanation of John Keats Upon First Looking into Chapman s Homer

John Keats' poem "Upon First Looking into Chapman's Homer" is a poem about reading. In 1816, Keats and his friend Charles Cowden Clark spent an evening reading selections from George Chapman's 17th-century translation of Homer. When Keats went home early the next morning, he quickly wrote this Petrarchan sonnet, recounting his experience. The result was this well-known Romantic description of the kinds of sublime feelings that classical texts can evoke. The Nature of Writing is a Youtube channel and website (https://www.natureofwriting.com) dedicated to the teaching of English literature and writing. Check us out for amazing writing tips, as well as in-depth videos on English literature and much more. If you liked this video, please provide a small donation so we can continue to keep our videos ad-free: https://natureofwriting.com/donate/