Talk:On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
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Nominate for featured article? Stunning work,everyone! Andycjp 15/05/04
[edit] Cortez vs. Balboa.
I remember reading somewhere that Keats was actually not mistaken when he compares himself to Cortez.
Balboa discovered the Pacific. Homer wrote the epics. Chapman translated them
Cortez looked at the Pacific through Balboa's eyes (I think there is no proof that Cortez saw the pacific himself) Keats is looking at the epics through Chapman's eyes.
Both of them have not seen the true beauty of something so wonderful with their own eyes.
[edit] "Stout" Cortez
This has always seemed unfair. Why bring his body type into the poem? Bah humbug, Keats!
(M Padman) 'stout' used to mean 'brave' and is used in English public schools to describe someone as a 'stout fellow'. Incidentally neither Cortez nor Bilbao 'discovered' the Pacific. It was always there. It was found by them but what credit goes to the Indians who knew about it for ages and showed it to the so called 'explorer' who went where no humans went, meaning where no whites had ever gone.....
