MUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,   And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;   Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told   That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne:   Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies   When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez, when with eagle eyes   He stared at the Pacific—and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—   Silent, upon a peak in Darien.