To Homer
To Homer
Original Text
Richard Monckton Milnes, Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats (New York: Putnam, 1848). PR 4836 A4 1848 ROBA
1Standing aloof in giant ignorance,
3As one who sits ashore and longs perchance
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;
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
Publication Start Year
1848
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.625.
Rhyme
Form