Summary
In the first half of the poem, the speaker looks back on his journeys through Homer's epic universe. He isn't the first to visit these "realms of gold" and "western islands"; other young poets like himself have made their pilgrimage through these mythic lands, and as a result find themselves loyal to Apollo, the God of poetry, who inspired their own work. After spending so much time in Homer's world, the speaker thinks he's seen its boundaries. However, as soon as he hears of Chapman's translations, his perspective changes.
Analysis
In the first eight lines, or octave, the speaker establishes the sonnet's tone and subject, while also foreshadowing the change that will occur at the beginning of line 9. He speaks like a seasoned traveler who has canvassed the globe: the abundance of monosyllabic words with long vowels stretch out each line, as though the speaker is trying to capture and contain the breadth of his journeys in sound of the words he uses. It's hard to say where exactly the speaker is, but his language suggests that his view is wide and deep, as if he is speaking through his mind's eye in memory, or from some imaginary place.
In the first two lines, the speaker reflects upon his travels through "realms of gold" and "goodly states and kingdoms." However, the poem's title, which explicitly mentions Chapman's Homer, lets us know that the speaker is referring to a literary journey: he hasn't visited these realms in person, or seen these states and kingdoms with his own eyes, but rather through the imaginative experience of reading. Additionally, because the poem is about Chapman's Homer, we know that the places mentioned in the first line must refer to a vision of Homer's epics expressed by another translator. The first word, "Much," lets us know that the speaker has frequently read these works.
Lines 3 and 4 continue the speaker's description of his literary voyages. He also traversed the "western islands" of Homer's world, which other poets also found to be a source of inspiration and pleasure. These poets, the "bards" of line 4, are "in fealty to," or hold loyalty towards, Apollo, the Greek god of art and poetry because, according to myth, his good graces would spell success for their creative endeavors. This allusion again alerts us to the literary nature of the speaker's travels, and the secondary nature by which he encounters Homer's work.
Then, in lines 5 and 6, the speaker describes his impression of Homer's world. He had often "been told" through the work of previous translators of the "one wide expanse" over which Homer reigned supreme. This expanse refers to the epic universe of The Illiad and The Odyssey. Homer "rules" this universe because the speaker is unable to read his work in Greek, its original language. Because of this, his encounters with Homer's work, no matter how much the speaker has enjoyed them, only reveal an impression of his epics' true magnitude. He imagines that Homer's original work must be the best, that no translation could ever usurp the bard from his throne.
However, in lines 7 and 8, the speaker begins to change his mind. He says he "never breathe[d]" the "pure serene" of Homer's world until hearing Chapman's voice. In this line, "serene" functions as noun and means "an expanse of clear sky or calm sea," echoing line 5. However, Chapman grants the speaker access to the epics' pure expanse, calling attention to the clarity and quality of the translator's voice. It was as though, previously, the speaker were looking across Homer's world through a murky glass: now, Chapman wiped the dust from his lenses, and the universe is wider, brighter, and more pristine that it was before. The world the speaker sees is like new, unexplored terrain.
Because the speaker says he heard Chapman "speak out loud and bold," we may be tempted to forget that Keats never heard Chapman speak: the translator died in the 1630s, nearly 150 years before Keats was born. This phrase, then, refers to Chapman's literary voice: the style of Chapman's translation permits the speaker's newly unencumbered steps in Homer's universe. Line eight is also significant because it subtly suggests that Chapman's translation is perhaps better than Homer's original: the speaker may have been told in the past of Homer's rule, but Chapman's loud, bold voice challenges this belief. Finally, the line sets the stage for the poem's volta, which in this case is the change that occurs in the speaker through his encounter with Chapman's Homer.
