Alien(ation)

On page 4, Lacan talks about the formation of an "alienating identity" brought on by the mirror stage. This identity will then "mark with its rigid structure the subject's entire mental development." Although I am far from certain on this point, it seems that the transition of "instinctual thrusts" to dangers is the alienating factor here. Upon recognizing himself in the mirror, the subject becomes aware of his (physical?) relationship to the other objects he encounters, and understands at some level that he must cooperate with these others in order to get what he wants. Thus the subject must limit the physical manifestations of his desires, divorcing his inner-world from the outer-world. Before he recognized himself as a member of the physical world, the subject had no obligations to it. Maybe? Thoughts?

Maybe I have a handle on alienation (and maybe I don't), but there are several things I am totally confused by. Toward the end, Lacan talks about a "knot of imaginary servitude that love must always undo again, or sever." I think he may be talking about the ever-widening separation that occurs between the outer self and the inner self as a result of the imposition of cultural norms, and that love is some kind of satisfaction of an object cathexis whereby the inner and outer worlds may be united? (For anyone who may be, like myself, still a bit confused on cathexis, I found the definition given here helpful)

Finally, does anyone know why Lacan refers to the "aggressivity" that underlies all kinds of actions in the second to last paragraph? What is this aggressivity, and where does it come from?

mirror, mirror on the wall...or the ground

This is "Metamorphosis of Narcissus"--the Dali painting mentioned in the notes. It is based on the story of Narcissus from Greek mythology, a tale in which Narcissus falls in love with his reflection in water and is later turned into a flower by the gods. Dali painted this during his "paranoiac-critical" phase wherein he basically induced paranoia (without drugs...there is apparently an amusing quote where he says something like "I don't need drugs. I am drugs.") and then painted the resulting images. As is also noted in the sidebar (?), this piece is roughly contemporary with Lacan's development of the mirror stage.

Before delving into any sort of commentary, I must say, I have thought and thought about this article and the concepts involved in the mirror stage, and, mostly, I am still confused. So, to keep the disclaimer trend going, if any of this seems like a wild misinterpretation or just wildly illogical, I apologize and I tried.

Anyways, here goes: As I said above, Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection, but is never able to grasp the image--the love is unfulfilled. He loves an illusion, not an actual person, so there is a gap between what he thinks he should be able to love and what he can actually hold onto. This also happens for infants encountering the mirror stage; they see their chubby little faces in the mirror, but their realization of any sort of "I" is incomplete. They cannot recognize selfdom until others are involved (There are 8 people on the left with the whole man, as opposed to one statue turned away on the right). This unfulfillment/incomplete knowledge results in alienation and a sense of fragmentation often represented in dreams by "disjointed limbs" (i.e. the hand on the right as opposed to the man on the left). Also included in the painting are a typical Dali motif--ants, which, I believe usually represent sexual frustration if I am not mistaken.

As a side note, this reminded me of a sociological concept proposed by Charles Horton Cooley coincidentally called the "looking glass self." In his case, however, the mirror is others. Essentially, your perception of yourself is based on what you think others think of you; you cannot know yourself without others.

CLASS CANCELLED FRIDAY, JAN 29

Just reiterating that we will not meet on Friday.  We'll talk Lacan on Monday.  Be safe and stay warm.

I too was fascinated by Lacan's article. He has a very distinctive style and language use that I alternately found beautifully constructed and annoyingly technical and confusing. The article contains an intriguing mix of storybook imagery (such as the battle comparisons that Cory mentioned), biology terms (dehiscent, etc.), and somewhat baffling references to psychological theory and terms. I think that reading it made me feel a little bit lost in places because of said psychobabble.

Thus admittedly not a master of this brilliant philosopher, I am curious about one bit of the article in particular. I don't know if I really understand what Lacan means by the "fragmented self" of the mirror image. There is the idea that the infant sees herself and the mirror and identifies that image as herself and also the world as represented in the mirror as the inter-related objects that she has already identified. That realization seems to roughly correspond with a few of Freud's ideas, However, when Lacan is speaking of the whole versus the shattered self, I don't know if I fully understand the implications. Is this just an expression of the infant's mental incompleteness or a statement on the permanent implications of the development of the human psyche...?

Also, I think I must look into the writings/revisions of Anna Freud. I found it somewhat curious that the Freud that Lacan mainly referred to was not the great psychoanalyst but his daughter.

(And I too must add the "if I am confusing, tell me" disclaimer. I think perhaps I make more sense in my own head than I ever will elsewhere.)

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I find Lacan's description of the mirror stage very fascinating, not only for the idea that he proposes, but also the way he constructs it. In looking at some of the language he uses, it seems to me that he has in mind a very violent activity going on within the child itself. Two of the descriptions that he puts forth use employ word choices that suggest imagery of a battle:

1) "...the mirror stage is a drama whose internal pressure pushes...to the finally donned armor of an alienating identity that will mark his entire mental development with its rigid structure" (6).
2) "Correlatively, the I formation is symbolized in dreams by a fortified camp, or even a stadium--distributing, between the arena within its walls and its outer border of gravel-pits and marshes, two opposed fields of battle where the subject bogs down in his quest for the proud, remote inner castle whose form...strikingly symbolizes the id" (7).


Both citations are based on Fink's translation of Ecrits, emphasis added. I don't think that the war-related words were accidental at all. On the one hand, the infant has to confront itself as an other and resolve any anxieties that result from actually recognizing that it exists in some other sort of spectral form (the mirror image). On the other, since Lacan suggests that the mirror stage contributes to the onset of the Oedipal complex, it seems to me that perhaps as the child comes to recognize itself in the mirror, it also begins to recognize that it has to battle the father for the rights to be intimate with the mother. Maybe these are war games for the inevitable failed encounter that brings the child to submit to the father's right to primacy in sexual or desired contact with the mother?

What do you all think? If I didn't explain myself well enough, let me know..I've been known to do that.

New Criticism of John Keats’ “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816)

After reading this poem several times, it is easy to see the purpose John Keats had when writing it. His enthusiasm for the works of Homer as translated by Chapman shine through in his diction, as a true understanding of the Ancient poet’s works become clear to him. A critic of this poem could say that tension arises in the work due to the understanding of Homer in a translated sense, rather than its original form in Greek. This concern is readily disregarded by modern readers, who have probably only encountered Homer themselves in a translated version.
From the title of the poem, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”, it is easy to infer that Keats’ main objective in this poem is to relate to the reader his first encounter with a translated version of Homer. This encounter can be said to be quite a good one, considering Keats’ flowery diction and a metaphor comparing his discovery to that of Cortez. This metaphor is not factual however, as Cortez did not “star[e] at the Pacific” but rather conquered the Aztec people (12). Disregarding the incongruity of this fact, the purpose of the metaphor is clear, in that Keats feels like he has stumbled upon something beautiful and new by reading Homer in the vernacular.
This newness and implied understanding of the text of Homer by Keats is made possible by the translation of Chapman, which allows Keats to feel “like some watcher of the skies/ When a new planet swims into his ken” (8-9). This simile and the use of the word “ken”, meaning vision, gives a complexity to the poem, as a reader must delve further than the surface to get at its meaning. Keats compares himself to a “watcher of the skies”, continuing to lead the poem into otherworldly spectrums, after his reference to Apollo: the god of music, poetry, and oracles, and “the realms of gold” (1, 4, 8). As this “watcher of the skies”, Keats finds Homer’s works to be like “a new planet swim[ming] into his ken”, and is quite taken aback by the view and feeling which accompany it (8-9).
This new understanding of the works takes Keats to a new level of consciousness, as he can “breathe [the] pure serene” of the lands of Homer and his characters. The tone of this work is one of astonishment. Keats projects a feeling of interested excitement at the discovery of Homer through the voice of Chapman. Because of the translation of Homer in this way, despite its lack of classicism, Keats can explore the text more thoroughly and enjoy it from a modern reader’s perspective.

On First Looking into Keat's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"

Since the New Criticism values titles as much as they do, it strikes me as a good idea to spend at least some time examining Keat's title as it relates to the poem itself. The word that I think is most striking is "First." Given the geographic setting of the poem, and its emphasis on exploration, this aspect of the title lends itself readily to a connection with intellectual discovery as a parallel to the explorers of the new world. There are at least three points of particular interest to me concerning the subtleties of exploration in the poem, and I think there is room to combine something of a post-colonial reading with the aforementioned formalist approach.

The first point of interest is that when describing the places he has already been, the speaker mentions "western islands." The connotation of "western" in a context of exploration is at least two-fold. Since the western world is suggestive of civilization or what is "known" in western thought, it seems that "western islands" may be a reference to the Mediterranean islands of Greece, or perhaps western thought more generally, as opposed to pre-industrial cultures that the west has encountered in its explorations. This is dramatically opposed to the other obvious connotation of "western islands": the new world itself. While opposing the previous reading, this reading also suggests that perhaps the speaker is establishing his familiarity with the new world, hinting that the frontiers of the globe have been exhausted, in contrast with the intellectual frontiers that have been opened by Chapman's Homer.

Keat's "watcher of the skies" supports the second reading of "western islands," and is the second part of the poem that catches my eye. The speaker moves beyond simple geographical exploration to the exploration of something completely other. This transition from terrestrial to astronomical mirrors the rapid transition from knowledge to discovery, just as it mirrors the transition from familiar surroundings to the otherness of space.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Keats has reopened the possibility of fertile exploration even of things already known when he introduces near the end of the poem his "wild surmise." It seems that although the new world Cortez and his men look on is itself wild and new, there is also something wild in their own speculation and imagination. This in turn would suggest that while exploring something new is invigorating and important, the creative imagination can introduce an element of wildness into even those things which we have already studied, just as the speaker has no doubt studied Homer and other masterpieces of western thought. The transition from geographical to astronomical has been extended yet again to the psychical; the frontiers have been pushed back so far that they are now internal to the human mind.

Lacan-"The Mirror Stage"

This reading is interesting, if readily comprehended. Lacan's language, like many of his time, is a bit archaic and hard to decipher for a modern reader like myself, with all of its additional psychobabble that I additionally don't really understand. However, I feel like I can grasp at least a portion of Lacan's point in relation to the act of the "Mirror Stage". Reading this, I was reminded of the instinctual traits of infants that I've heard about--the main one being that a newborn is able to swim if put in water. I find that this Mirror Stage concept is relatable in that it is quite innate. Lacan states that "This event can take place...from the age of six months" when an infant has no real motor skills or self-motivation (1). The infant, when placed in front of a mirror, is quite taken aback by a revealed image of himself. By moving around and touching the mirror, the child is able to realize that it is in fact his image and that of the world surrounding him that is reflected. Lacan believes, if I am correct in this assumption, that this "identification" that occurs with the mirror, comes vastly before the Oedipus complex of Freud's theory begins (2). Additionally, Lacan believes that this "identification" is a false one, which results in a false reality which must be reconciled with as the child matures (2). Lacan goes on to mention the "Innenwelt" and the "Umwelt" or, innerworld and outerworld. It's about here where I get lost in the complexity of the language Lacan uses. He goes on to consider Freud's Oedipus complex, which he believes replaces the infant's "mirror stage" (5).

I'm pretty confused at the significance of this stage and its real realtion to the ego, id, and super ego. Any ideas?

Keats, Homer, Apollo

I, too, add the middling-quality disclaimer. Perhaps we all need a bit more confidence?

In constructing his poem “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer,” Keats chooses to utilize the Petrarchan sonnet. Using this stringent form to express the speaker’s response to Homer’s epic creates the tension inherent in condensing a reaction to an important and lengthy literary work to 15 lines. The use of the Petrarchan sonnet forces Keats to wring the maximum meaning from each word, constructing and conveying his images carefully. Keats successfully encapsulates the speaker’s entire range of emotion in the stringent form of the 15-line sonnet. Keats likens the discovery of Homer to an explorer (Cortez) witnessing the Pacific for the first time or an astronomer discovering a new planet, allowing the reader to understand the revolutionary magnitude of the speaker’s discovery.
The octet/sestet division also paves the way for the clear delineation of the speaker’s frustration at being unable to read Homer’s works (the problem) and his total satisfaction once they are accessible (the resolution). The images of “realms of gold” and “western islands” make sense in juxtaposition with images of Cortez and his men looking out from Darien. This is because the former are used to establish the speaker’s extensive knowledge of and appreciation for poetry and the latter are employed to further this end. The transition in tone from one set of images to the other is also appropriate to the Petrachan form. The longing conveyed in the octet finds its solution in the awe expressed in the sestet.
One of the best examples of Keats’ economy of words within the constraints of his chosen form is the use of “Apollo” in line four. Words that help convey more than one of the poem’s central ideas are especially important. The reference to the Greek god of the sun and of poetry unites the poem’s emphasis on antiquity and the speaker’s reverence of poetry. The reference to Apollo comes midway through the octet, while Homer’s works have not been translated and lie beyond the speaker’s grasp. Apollo comes to represent a somewhat more accessible figure from a largely unknowable world. Additionally, Apollo is the god of poetry and the arts, esteemed by “bards,” further contributing underscoring the speaker’s extensive knowledge of poetry.
The reference to Apollo also contributes to the formal unity of the poem. The sestet deals largely with the illumination that accompanies reading Homer’s epics as translated by Chapman. Apollo is the sun god in Greek mythology and so literally brought illumination in the eyes of the ancients, much as the Iliad and Odyssey illuminate the world of the ancients for the speaker. The multiple meanings of “Apollo” serve to both create tension in the poem and point to the eventual resolution of that tension.

new critical, keats...

Stories can have profound effects on those who hear or read them, especially at the first encounter. Sometimes even a familiar plot line will inspire awe in the audience, if it is infused with new images, new perspectives, or simply brilliant authorship. This may be the most effective way to communicate with an audience on a deeper level, since the major points are understood and more attention can be paid to details; more powerful images can be created this way. In his poem “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” John Keats displays how the way a story is told brings new life to its plot, especially through his use of similes, images, allusions, and contrasting diction.

In the poem, the speaker begins by describing some of his own adventures to “realms of gold” and “goodly states and kingdoms” (line 1, 2). The words “goodly and “gold” set up a positive atmosphere for these travels; this is strengthened by the fact that “bards” or other poets hold these places “in fealty to Apollo” (4), the god of poetry among other things. The poem goes on to describe another place that the speaker has never been but that he has heard of through retellings of Homer’s poetry. Still, he feels he has never “breathe[d] its pure serene” (7), even though it has been described to him before, the same way the places he has been were described by other poets. This sets up a disappointed tone, as though the speaker wishes he could experience this place.

An important shift occurs between lines seven and eight; the disappointed tone turns awed, and the diction turns from calm, flowing words like “pure serene” to much more choppy diction: Chapman, a translator of Homer’s poetry, is able to “speak out loud and bold” (8). This shift in mood leads into a tone shift as well, which is characterized by the images Keats creates and allusions he uses to build similes. A comparison to “some watcher of the skies” (9) first seeing a new planet in his field of vision shows the same wonder of the speaker upon his “first look” at Chapman’s version of Homer. There is an element of anticipation in this image, as well. The planet “swims into his ken” (10); swimming is not a very fast method of transportation, so some tension is built up as it is moving. Finally, the planet arrives, and a sense of relief can be felt along with the admiration.

Even more profound is the allusion to the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortez, who was one of the first Europeans to ever see the Pacific Ocean. Keats describes Cortez as staring, looking with “a wild surmise” (13), and being silent at the sight of the ocean. The image here is one of almost perfect stillness and awe. The comparison of the speaker to Cortez in this situation demonstrates exactly how powerfully the speaker was affected by Chapman’s Homer, upon the first reading just as Cortez had his first sighting of the ocean.

The title of this poem seems dry at first, because it has no images itself. However, the rest of the poem continually shows how important the “first look” is: for the stargazer, for Cortez, and for the persona of the poem and his first look at Chapman’s Homer. The familiarity of the plot does not diminish the wonder the speaker feels at hearing this version of the story for the first time. Keats succesfully advocates the idea of retelling old stories in new ways through the way he builds tensions and then shifts the mood and tone in this poem.

Pre-oedipal minds?

One thing that I've considered while reading Freud is the formation of the mind. Since we talked about this a little in class today, I thought it might be a good time to post on it.

We identified the Oedipal Complex as one of the defining events of the mind, as Freud describes in italics on pg. 30. However, it seems strange to me for a child, even a very young child, to not have an ego. Even a toddler who has supposedly not resolved the Oedipal Complex would need this function. I haven't finished the last chapter of the reading yet, so the answers might be in there, I just thought I might post on it to see what other people thought. Is there room (in this text at least, I don't want to open the can of outside arguments while I don't fully understand this) for the original structure of the mind to also affect its eventual formation? Or does the Oedipal Complex the only determining factor?

If this is not true, then how does Freud think kids operate before they resolve this conflict, or even before it happens? Or is it always happening?

keats and new criticism

Not my best paper either.

Keats and New Criticism

Keats uses both the structure and the content of his poem “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” to create the poem’s particular aesthetic experience. The poem’s title mentions a translation of Homer, which both contrasts with and complements the poem’s stiff Petrarchan form. The most well-educated people who read Keat’s poetry would have also expected to a working knowledge of Greek to fully appreciate Homer; yet Keats still presents his admiration in a strict poetic form.
The poem’s first mention of action is that of traveling, especially among islands and in the sea. This both alludes to the adventures of Odysseus and provides a contrast for the next poetic image. While the speaker had traveled “in the realms of gold” and been “round many western islands” before reading Chapman’s translation, afterwards he feels like “some new watcher in the skies,” or as if he has discovered the Pacific (1, 3, 9). He refers to this newly discovered land as a place that “Homer [rules]” but had before been unknown to him, providing a metaphor for the experience of wonder and marvel at literature. Even then, it is not Homer, but Chapman, that speaks “out loud and bold” to Keats, emphasizing the importance of the translation in his artistic experience (8). By referencing “feality” to Apollo, Keats also establishes himself and Chapman in the same poetic tradition as Homer, although they are not as high-ranking (4).
Keat’s inclusion of the imagery of realms, islands, seas, mountains and expanses as reveals much about his opinions of literature. According to this metaphor, it is something that can be traveled and discovered as a landscape. Through his poetic devices such as allusion and imagery, Keats paints a literary universe.

The Poetry Foundation on John Keats

The Poetry Foundation publishes the 'Poetry Off the Shelf' podcast series. They analyzed 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' on August 26th 2009. Here's the link if you want to listen online, or you can download it from the 'Poetry Off the Shelf' podcast series on iTunes.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/audio.html?show=Poetry%20Off%20the%20Shelf

Enjoy!

Keats Quick Critic + Sinus Medication

John Keats’ “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” masterfully employs imagery and distinctive grammatical constructions to depict the poet’s reactions of revelation and overwhelming emotionality to Chapman’s poetry epic while adhering to the relatively strict structural limitations of the English sonnet. The sonnet’s structure is a significant element in the success of Keats’ work, as it allows him to quickly demonstrate his education in Greek and English poetry, and thus establish his authority as a worthy critic for Chapman’s work. His iambic pentameter (obligated by the sonnet form) follows the metrical convention of Chapman’s Odyssey translation and appropriately resembles the dactylic hexameter of Homer’s work; the pentameter’s pedigree as an appropriate medium to convey epic literature establishes his audience ‘s expectation that they are reading a serious composition, where the meter’s typical employment in heroic forms implies Keats’ work would be a tribute honoring Chapman’s translation.
Structurally, the traditional separation of poem into an octave and a sestet mirrors the stages of Keats’ own revelation, and alterations in grammar after the volta, especially in the construction of verbal phrases and the number of actors, emphasizes the power of Chapman’s translation as a transformative text with the potential to deeply impact the audience. The volta of line nine relies on the implied verb ‘watch’ – creating the first implication of action in the poetic present tense, lending the line an air of fresh revelation when compared with Keats’ perfect tense description of a distantly remembered travel experiences at the beginning of the poem. Likewise, Keats’ placement of Cortez before the verb “star[e]d” in line 11 implies the explorer’s role as a performer of action rather than a pedestrian observer of events (as Keats had billed himself in the preceding octave). These active, straight-forward constructions of Keats’ and Cortez’ experience are meant as a compliment to Chapman’s powers of translation and composition, representing the clarification of Keats’ personal understanding of the texts through his reading of Chapman’s verse.
The volta also marks a transition in the dominant method of sensory perception Keats employs when experiencing and describing Homer’s poetry. Keats initially affects a jaded, dismissive tone when describing his wide travels among various islands and kingdoms, symbols of literary works he has read and possibly of other Homeric translations. The textual separation of verbs in “have I travelled” (line one) and every other auxiliary verb and main verb set in the first seven lines of the poem lends the speaker a complex, lordly style of sentence construction; this meandering style simultaneously presents Keats’ experiences as passive and possibly involuntary. The textual arrangement of “have I travelled” and other verb-noun-auxiliary verb constructions in the octet lend the entire section a dusty interrogative air and an unsettling sense of uncertainty, which is only broken in line eight with the phrase “I heard Chapman speak”. The strong stylistic caesura forces the audience to experience the new clarity of Chapman’s Homer translation, and to implicitly trust Keats’ judgment of its quality.
Protean shifts in the number, size, and composition of land masses symbolize the level of significance that Keats anticipates Chapman’s Homeric translation will exert over the educated public. The incomprehensible scale and inexorable nature of the Pacific Ocean and a large planet represent the magnitude of Chapman’s translation, and anticipate its vast potential to transform the English-speaking world’s perception of Homer and his poetry. The contrast of several small countries and islands with an ocean and a planet emphasizes the overwhelming authority of Chapman’s work while implying Keats’ breadth of experience with classical literature and his ability to accurately assess such potential success.

Don't Judge

A revelation, a discovery—these are often celebratory moments, instances of jubilant outburst. Encountering something new and worthwhile is a cause for excitement; yet, in John Keats’ poem “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” the reaction is subdued—his is a far from scream-it-from-the-mountaintop epiphany. Contained within a sonnet, his praise for Chapman’s translation of Homer is just that—contained.
Keats’ composes his piece in a highly controlled manner, in stately reverence; yet, he praises Chapman for “speak[ing] out loud and bold,” for these two characteristics not present in his own work (8). His lauding does not follow the perceived form of the inspiration—Keats’ poem is quiet and reserved. It seems a personal revelation, a whisper overheard, a private reveling, not a work that calls out as Chapman’s interpretations did to him. Keats internalized those apparently highly audible epic tales and released something softer, but still clearly enamored with the original; he does not gush aimlessly, but his tribute is no less impassioned, just more focused.
The poetic reflection on Chapman’s version of a classic storyteller may not be “bold” either—its form may not allow for that—but the depth of feeling that it expresses is not reduced because of it (8). The structure is not daring as “bold” might connote, having, as it does, a strict rhyme scheme and metered words as sonnets must, but the lack of risks is no indication of ambivalence (8). Sometimes, just the discovery is bold enough in of itself, just the unearthing of something fresh is adventurous in its own right. The aftershock, the reply to such findings need not also be as free, as unencumbered, and, sometimes, the only answer possible, like that of “Cortez” (11) “and all his men” to their encounter of the “Pacific” (12), is “silen[ce],” is a reined in display that has taken the time to ponder the subject before blurting out an opinion (14).
It is a natural inclination to share what one has discovered, to expose others to a personal revelation. Keats’ rendering of this tendency in “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” does not seem to be an instantaneous one; his divulgence in the penchant is calculated and well thought out. It reflects an exuberant text in a calmly exuberant way, making a collected, neat remark out of an overflowing excitement.

Keats Quick Critic

This is so not one of my better papers, but hey. :)

John Keats’s poem On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer begins its journey with the words of a traveler, world-wise and weary in the way of literature and art. “Much have I travell’d,” it waxes, “in the realms of gold” (1). Yet, this traveler is still full of wonder, amazed at the fragile beauty of the words of a Greek poet translated to English. With words and structure, with images of travel and wonder, Keats skillfully recreates and re-imagines the wonder of literary discovery.

In homage to the glorious genius of bygone era, Keats structures this poem of literary discovery and wonder in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet. In keeping with this form, the poem has two parts: a octave and a sestet. The octave begins the poem with a story of sorts, a voyage through the “realms of gold” (1), the “western islands” (3), and ends it with a transition. The structured, explanatory octave moves seamlessly to the sestet with an awestruck declaration, of “Till I heard Chapman speak loud and bold” (8). With these words, the poem transitions from a voyage of literary discovery to the musings of a contemporary scholar, a seasoned lover of literature and form struck by the wonder, the emotional implications of discovery. In contrast to the structured, orderly octave, the sestet is much more exploratory, taking the scholarly journey of the octave and making it emotional, almost spiritual in its revelation of wholeness and wonder. It is thus in the sestet that the classical form is (if only very slightly) deviated from. Some lines in this part of the poem contain an extra syllable, adding an extra, unidentified tone to the poem’s tightly-bound whole. As a whole, Keats’s structure both pays homage to the classical form and tweaks it just slightly, symbolizing the discovery of something that simultaneously very new and very old.

Also playing with the contrasting, yet intertwining present and past in the poem are the words themselves. The letter ‘l’ litters the poems opening lines, popping up in ‘travell’d’, ‘realms’, goodly’ like the masts of sailing ships. These word-ships sail in the ‘wide expanses’, ‘the pure serene’ of Keats’s broad and almost limitless imagination. It is with devices such as these, words as sailing ships, the mind as but a sea is carried on later in the poem with images of a previously undiscovered planet (the coveted English translations of Homer) “[swimming] into his ken” (10), that Keats swims the oceans of time, connecting the grand beauty of the past, of Homer and his translators, with the admirers, the watchers of the skies, that preserve their words for the future whilst simultaneously, always looking back with wonder.
All in all, Keats’s Homer uses its form as a homage, as an ode. A classical form imitates the sonnets of times gone, while tweaks, “mistakes” mark the pieces subtle, unsaid tensions between the greatness of the past and the wonder of the present. The words, the pieces of the work build together, painting a picture, of past, of present joined together by the beautiful, deep expanses of the mind.

keats quick critic 1

The title of the poem sets up the reader’s frame of reference for the lines that follow. The “Homer” that Keats is referring to is none other than the classic poet to whom we attribute The Odyssey and The Iliad, and the Chapman that he speaks of is a translator of the previous two works. So, combining these facts, the reader can infer that the overarching premise of the poem is a reflection upon what Keats felt when he first read or discovered the Chapman translations of these works. More interesting, however, is the choice of the word ‘into’. Intuitively speaking, into suggests that there was some form of investigation in the translated work. There may also be a deeper meaning in the word choice; ‘through’ would serve a similar function, so why is ‘into’ chosen instead? On another level, it may be Keats’ intention to convey a metaphorical entrance into the text—as if upon his first reading of the text he entered an entirely new and fascinating world that encompassed his entire being. Indeed, this could be a possibility; Oxford English Dictionary defines into as “expressing motion to a position within a space or thing…so as to enter” . Under this assumption of the word, it is clear that Keats means to express a profound joy about “Chapman’s Homer”.


Additional words exist in the actual poem that further indicate a sense of excitement about the content of the work that Keats examined. The use of ‘gold’ in the first line suggests that Chapman’s work is being compared to other works of profound magnificence. As a poet, Keats would certainly be versed in other works of literary merit, and would be familiar with the great works of Shakespeare or Pope. Thus, it could be easily assumed that when he speaks of having “travell’d in the realms of gold”, he is referencing the body of literature that he has under his command. This makes the use of gold as a comparison agent all the more powerful. Additionally, using ‘wild’ in the fourteenth line serves a similar purpose. In context, Keats alludes to the wonder the first Europeans to survey the Pacific Ocean must have felt. However, wild carries an interesting connotation—it is something raw, unbridled, and apart from the everyday carryings-on of mankind. This translation of Homer, for Keats, represents something new and set apart from what normally transpires within the realm of regular literature. Thus, when set against many items of a golden standard, this work represents something that is different and a level above what is usually seen.

Presentation Sign-up

Comment on this posting and indicate which theory that you want to present to the class.  (Due dates in parenthesis).

Psychoanalysis (Jan 25)
Marxism (Feb 1)
Structuralism (Feb 8)
Ethical theory (Feb 15)
Poststructuralism (Feb 22)
Deconstruction (Mar 1)
Feminism (Mar 8)
New Historicism (Mar 22)
Cultural Studies (Mar 29)
Postcolonial theory (Apr 5)
Multiculturalism/ethnic/Af Am studies (Apr 9)
Queer Theory (Apr 12)
Ecocriticism (Apr 19)

Welcome to our class blog!

This blog will serve as your site for posting responses to our class readings. As you decided as a class, each student is responsible for posting and responding to a post at least once on each theory. Although that is the requirement, the more you post and the longer your posting, I would think the higher you can score yourself on this part of your grade.

Your posting might consist of the following:

• questions you had about the various readings
• disagreements you have with certain aspects of theories
• responses to class presentations/lectures/discussions
• applications of theories to literary texts
• descriptions of passages that you don't understand and why
• anything else relevant to this course's topic

When you respond to a peer's posting, please be respectful and engage him/her in the terms in which they wrote their posting.