Critical Comparison of ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’ by John Keats and ‘In an Artist’s Studio’ by Christina Rossetti Anonymous College

Both John Keats's 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' and Christina Rossetti's 'In An Artist's Studio' both tackle similar themes; adoration for art be it one's own in Rossetti's poem, or the art of another in Keats's, with Keats admiring the translation of Homer by George Chapman. But there's a marked difference in tone, the former poem is more appreciative of the art form, a reflection on the wonder and the “realms of gold”1. The latter poem seems to be a condemnation of the artist's ego and desires, conjuring up this Dorian Gray-esque image of being wholly consumed by one's art, more so than this there's also a juxtaposition between the real and the idealised, the woman as she “fills his dream”2. In this sense, both poems could surely be seen as an appreciation for art, but Rossetti's poem is much more narcissistic. Further similarities are found in the fact that both poems are Petrarchan sonnets, so stylistically they are similar too, yet very much differ in the subject matter.

In the first poem, we are first given sense of how appreciative of art Keats is by way of the aforementioned metaphor “realms of gold”, yet it is initially unclear to us whether or not this supposed journey is literal or figurative, if we don't...