Canto I III
Oh, thou, in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth,Muse, formed or fabled at the minstrel's will!Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred hill:Yet there I've wandered by thy vaunted rill;Yes! sighed o'er Delphi's long-deserted shrineWhere, save that feeble fountain, all is still;Nor mote my shell awake the weary NineTo grace so plain a tale--this lowly lay of mine.
Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth,Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight;But spent his days in riot most uncouth,And vexed with mirth the drowsy ear of Night.Ah, me! in sooth he was a shameless wight,Sore given to revel and ungodly glee;Few earthly things found favour in his sightSave concubines and carnal companie,And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.
Childe Harold was he hight:--but whence his nameAnd lineage long, it suits me not to say;Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame,And had been glorious in another day:But one sad losel soils a name for aye,However mighty in the olden time;Nor all that heralds rake from coffined clay,Nor florid prose, nor honeyed lines of rhyme,Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime.
Words in this poem 16
- rill n.
- A very small brook; a streamlet. [Cf. LG. rille a small channel or brook, a furrow, a chamfer, OE. rigol a small brook, F. rigole a trench or furrow for water, W. rhill a row, rhigol a little di]
- mote n.
- A meeting of persons for discussion; as, a wardmote in the city of London. [See Moot, a meeting.]
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- sooth a.
- True; faithful; trustworthy. [OE. soth, AS. s, for san; akin to OS. s, OHG. sand, Icel. sannr, Sw. sann, Dan. sand, Skr. sat, sant, real, genuine, present, being; properly p. pr. from a root]
- wight n.
- A whit; a bit; a jot. [OE. wight, wiht, a wight, a whit, AS. wiht, wuht, a creature, a thing; skin to D. wicht a child, OS. & OHG. wiht a creature, thing, G. wicht a creature, Icel. v]
- ungodly a.
- Not godly; not having regard for God; disobedient to God; wicked; impious; sinful.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- favour n.
- Kind regard; propitious aspect; countenance; friendly disposition; kindness; good will. [Written also favour.]
- childe n.
- A cognomen formerly prefixed to his name by the oldest son, until he succeeded to his ancestral titles, or was knighted; as, Childe Roland.
- hight v. t.
- To be called or named. [OE. heiten, highten, haten, hoten; also hight, hatte, hette, is called, was called, AS. hatan to call, name, be called, to command, promise; also hatte is calle]
- suffice v. i.
- To be enough, or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate. [OE. suffisen, OF. soufire, F. suffire (cf. suffisant, p.pr.), L. sufficere to put under, to substitute, to avail for, to suffice; sub under + facere to make. Se]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- losel n.
- One who loses by sloth or neglect; a worthless person; a lorel. [From the root of lose, loss. Lorel.]
- olden a.
- Old; ancient; as, the olden time.
- honeyed a.
- Covered with honey.
- blazon v. t.
- To depict in colors; to display; to exhibit conspicuously; to publish or make public far and wide. [From blazon, n.; confused with 4th blaze: cf. F. blasonner.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I III is in the public domain. This text is taken from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Project Gutenberg ebook #5131; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Lord Byron, Canto I III, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-iii.html, id L06476.
Form and metre
Canto I III is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABBCBCC, the Spenserian stanza. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: imagining / spring, brightening / spring, imagining / wing, brightening / wing, brightening / imagining and 467 more.
See other poems in the Spenserian stanza, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABBCBCC birthA · willB · earthA · hillB · rillB · shrineC · stillB · nineC · mineC
- 2 ABABBCBCC youthA · delightB · uncouthA · nightB · wightB · gleeC · sightB · companieC · degreeC
- 3 ABABBCBCC nameA · sayB · fameA · dayB · ayeB · timeC · clayB · rhymeC · crimeC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, thou, in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Muse, formed or fabled at the minstrel's will! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred hill: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Yet there I've wandered by thy vaunted rill; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yes! sighed o'er Delphi's long-deserted shrine | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Where, save that feeble fountain, all is still; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Nor mote my shell awake the weary Nine | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| To grace so plain a tale--this lowly lay of mine. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| But spent his days in riot most uncouth, | 10 | ·····/˘·// |
| And vexed with mirth the drowsy ear of Night. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ah, me! in sooth he was a shameless wight, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sore given to revel and ungodly glee; | 10 | ·/·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Few earthly things found favour in his sight | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Save concubines and carnal companie, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree. | 12 | ·/˘·······˘/ |
| Childe Harold was he hight:--but whence his name | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And lineage long, it suits me not to say; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame, | 10 | ˘/··˘/···· |
| And had been glorious in another day: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| But one sad losel soils a name for aye, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| However mighty in the olden time; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Nor all that heralds rake from coffined clay, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Nor florid prose, nor honeyed lines of rhyme, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime. | 11 | ·/˘/··/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 5
E. H. Coleridge's notes to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, The Works of Lord Byron, Poetry vol. II (John Murray, 1899; Project Gutenberg #25340). Bracketed passages are the editor's; unbracketed are Byron's own (Cantos I-III) or John Cam Hobhouse's (Canto IV, his 'Historical Notes'). Digit footnotes ('[17]') are informational and numbered continuously through the whole book; end-notes keyed '[n.B.]' (Byron) or '[n.H.]' (Hobhouse) follow each canto and are numbered afresh from 1 there. Both kinds are placed here by matching each note's own quoted words against the site's text, not by the number or stanza the note states, because the site's text (Gutenberg #5131) and this edition (#25340) are different editions with different stanza counts in Canto I. Lettered footnotes ('[h]', '[dn]') are manuscript and edition variant readings and are not harvested, matching the treatment of Don Juan's and byron-works-3's lettered notes.
- Stanza 1, line 3 [For the substitution of the text for vars. ii., iii., see letter to Dallas, September 21, 1811 (Letters, 1898, ii. 43).]
- Stanza 1, line 6 The little village of Castri stands partially on the site of Delphi. Along the path of the mountain, from Chrysso, are the remains of sepulchres hewn in and from the rock:--"One," said the guide, "of a king who broke his neck hunting." His majesty had certainly chosen the fittest spot for such an achievement.
A little above Castri is a cave, supposed the Pythian, of immense depth; the upper part of it is paved, and now a cowhouse.
On the other side of Castri stands a Greek monastery; some way above which is the cleft in the rock, with a range of caverns difficult of ascent, and apparently leading to the interior of the mountain; probably to the Corycian Cavern mentioned by Pausanias. From this part descend the fountain and the "Dews of Castalie."
[Byron and Hobhouse slept at Crissa December 15, and visited Delphi December 16, 1809.--Travels in Albania, i. 199-209.] - Stanza 2, line 9 ["We [i.e. Byron and C.S. Matthews] went down [April, 1809] to Newstead together, where I had got a famous cellar, and Monks' dresses from a masquerade warehouse. We were a company of some seven or eight, ... and used to sit up late in our friars' dresses, drinking burgundy, claret, champagne, and what not, out of the skull-cup, and all sorts of glasses, and buffooning all round the house, in our conventual garments" (letter to Murray, November 19, 1820. See, too, the account of this visit which Matthews wrote to his sister in a letter dated May 22, 1809 [Letters, 1898, i. 150-160, and 153, note]). Moore (Life, p. 86) and other apologists are anxious to point out that the Newstead "wassailers" were, on the whole, a harmless crew of rollicking schoolboys "--were, indeed, of habits and tastes too intellectual for mere vulgar debauchery." And as to the "alleged 'harems,'" the "Paphian girls," there were only one or two, says Moore, "among the ordinary menials." But, even so, the "wassailers" were not impeccable, and it is best to leave the story, fact or fable, to speak for itself.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 ["Hight" is the preterite of the passive "hote," and means "was called." "Childe Harold he hight" would be more correct. Compare Spenser's Faerie Queene, bk. i. c. ix. 14. 9, "She Queene of Faeries hight." But "hight" was occasionally used with the common verbs "is," "was." Compare The Ordinary, 1651, act iii. sc. 1--
"... the goblin That is hight Good-fellow Robin." Dodsley (ed. Hazlitt), xii. 253.] - Stanza 3, line 5 [William, fifth Lord Byron (the poet's grand-uncle), mortally wounded his kinsman, Mr. Chaworth, in a duel which was fought, without seconds or witnesses, at the Star and Garter Tavern, Pall Mall, January 29, 1765. He was convicted of wilful murder by the coroner's jury, and of manslaughter by the House of Lords; but, pleading his privilege as a peer, he was set at liberty. He was known to the country-side as the "wicked Lord," and many tales, true and apocryphal, were told to his discredit (Life of Lord Byron, by Karl Elze, 1872, pp. 5, 6).]
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