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To Homer

Keats, John
1Standing aloof in giant ignorance,
2      Of thee I hear and of the Cyclades,
3As one who sits ashore and longs perchance
4      To visit dolphin-coral in deep seas.
5So thou wast blind;--but then the veil was rent,
6      For Jove uncurtain'd Heaven to let thee live,
7And Neptune made for thee a spumy tent,
8      And Pan made sing for thee his forest-hive;
9Aye on the shores of darkness there is light,
10      And precipices show untrodden green,
11There is a budding morrow in midnight,
12      There is a triple sight in blindness keen;
13Such seeing hadst thou, as it once befel
14To Dian, Queen of Earth, and Heaven, and Hell.

Notes

2] Cyclades: islands of the Ægean. Back to Line
4] dolphin-coral. This may be an allusion to the beautiful colouring of the dorado fish, popularly called the dolphin; cf. Childe Harold, IV, xxix. Back to Line
13] Homer viewed life as completely as did the goddess with the three names who, as Luna, Diana, and Hecate, ruled in Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Back to Line