Analyzing the Textual Form and Literary Enlightenment of Keats’s On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Abstract

On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer is one of the classic masterpieces of John Keats, which is born from Keats’s ardent pursuit and exploration of literature and carries a rich cultural and emotional flavor. Based on the stylistic perspective, this study digs into the literary enlighten-ment embedded in this poem from the perspectives of poetic style, vocabulary, rhetorical devic-es and images. It is found that the rhythmic combination of the Italian sonnet echoes Keats’s emotional vein, the change of vocabulary reflects his psychological changes, the interweaving of various rhetorical devices strengthens the artistic effect, and the transformation of celestial and geographic images reflects the path of his literary exploration. At the same time, the poet Keats also uses this poem to celebrate the charm of classic literature, the desire to explore knowledge and the unknown, and the role of great literature in the spiritual world of the individual.