Author-text-reader relationships in Keats’ ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’ and Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’ Anonymous College

When we think about author and reader in tandem, a question or issue often comes immediately to a head: should the reader’s interpretation of a text take precedence over authorial authority? This question seems particularly pertinent with regards to both Tennyson and Keats’ poems which draw upon Homer’s writings in various ways for their own purposes. The idea of echoing is particularly helpful in relation to the two texts, where ‘echo’ refers to a repetition or replication of an original thing over a period of time, which becomes distorted and changed in this repetition. In the echo, the author is often lost; an idea that both Tennyson and Keats are exploring in their respective poems.Whilst the speaker in ‘On First…’ experiences an epiphany thanks to Chapman’s echo of Homer, Ulysses’ name is echoed through time but has left the ageing man behind, no longer fitting what the name ‘Ulysses’ has come to signify.

Indeed, names are of great importance in both poems, particularly ‘Homer’ in Keats’ sonnet and ‘Ulysses’ in Tennyson’s work. ‘Ulysses’ is a character who has been recycled throughout literature’s history, and Tennyson joins the ranks of writers who borrow Homer’s (though Latinated here) character here. However, what is...