time when he wrote the discovery of planets was
comparatively novel in human experience. Uranus had been found by William
Herschel in 1781, and in the years 1800 to 1807 followed the first four
minor planets, a number destined to remain without additions for nearly
forty years. It would be absurd to read any exact allusion into the words
quoted, when we remember the whole circumstances under which they were
written; but perhaps I may be forgiven if I compare them especially with
the actual discovery of the planet Uranus, for the reason that this was by
far the largest of the five--far larger than any other planet known except
Jupiter and Saturn, while the others were far smaller--and that Keats is
using throughout the poem metaphors drawn from the first glimpses of "vast
expanses" of land or water. Perhaps I may reproduce the whole sonnet. His
friend C. C. Clarke had put before him Chapman's "paraphrase" of Homer,
and they sat up till daylight to read it, "Keats shouting with delight as
some passage of especial energy struck his imagination. At ten o'clock the
next morning Mr. Clarke found the sonnet on his breakfast-table."

SONNET XI

_On first looking into Chapman's "Homer"_

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 star'd at the Pacific--and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

[Sidenote: Comparison with discovery of Uranus.]

Let us then, as our first example of the way in which astronomical
discoveries are made, turn to the discovery of the planet Uranus, and see
how it corresponds with the popular conception as voiced by Keats. In one
respect his words are true to the life or the letter. If ever there was a
"watcher of the skies," William Herschel was entitled to the name. It was
his custom to watch them the whole night through, from the earliest
possible moment to daybreak; and the fruits of his labours were many and
various almost beyond belief. But did the planet "swim into his ken"? Let
us turn to the origin