Laurel · Lord Byron · Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Canto I IX

Lord Byron (1788–1824) · 1812–1818

iambic pentameter · spenserian stanza · 27 lines · from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

The Childe departed from his father's hall;It was a vast and venerable pile;So old, it seemed only not to fall,Yet strength was pillared in each massy aisle.Monastic dome! condemned to uses vile!Where superstition once had made her den,Now Paphian girls were known to sing and smile;And monks might deem their time was come agen,If ancient tales say true, nor wrong these holy men.

Yet ofttimes in his maddest mirthful mood,Strange pangs would flash along Childe Harold's brow,As if the memory of some deadly feudOr disappointed passion lurked below:But this none knew, nor haply cared to know;For his was not that open, artless soulThat feels relief by bidding sorrow flow;Nor sought he friend to counsel or condole,Whate'er this grief mote be, which he could not control.

And none did love him: though to hall and bowerHe gathered revellers from far and near,He knew them flatterers of the festal hour;The heartless parasites of present cheer.Yea, none did love him--not his lemans dear--But pomp and power alone are woman's care,And where these are light Eros finds a feere;Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.

Words in this poem 16

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.
pillared a.: Supported or ornamented by pillars; resembling a pillar, or pillars.
massy a.: Compacted into, or consisting of, a mass; having bulk and weight ot substance; ponderous; bulky and heavy; weight; heavy; as, a massy shield; a massy rock.
paphian a.: Of or pertaining to Paphos, an ancient city of Cyprus, having a celebrated temple of Venus; hence, pertaining to Venus, or her rites.
deem v. t.: To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
ofttimes adv.: Frequently; often. [Oft + time. Cf. -wards.]
disappointed a.: Defeated of expectation or hope; balked; as, a disappointed person or hope.
haply adv.: By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
condole v. i.: To express sympathetic sorrow; to grieve in sympathy; -- followed by with. [L. condolere; con- + dolere to feel pain, grieve. See Doleful.]
mote n.: A meeting of persons for discussion; as, a wardmote in the city of London. [See Moot, a meeting.]
festal a.: Of or pertaining to a holiday or a feast; joyous; festive. [L. festum holiday, feast. See feast.]
heartless a.: Without a heart.
eros n.: Love; the god of love; -- by earlier writers represented as one of the first and creative gods, by later writers as the son of Aphrodite, equivalent to the Latin god Cupid.
feere n.: A consort, husband or wife; a companion; a fere. [See Fere, n.]
glare v. i.: To shine with a bright, dazzling light. [OE. glaren, gloren; cf. AS. glær amber, LG. glaren to glow or burn like coals, D. gloren to glimmer; prob. akin to E. glass.]
mammon n.: Riches; wealth; the god of riches; riches, personified. [L. mammona, Gr. mam; cf. Heb. matm a hiding place, subterranean storehouse, treasury, fr. taman to hide.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Canto I IX 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 IX, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-ix.html, id L06478.

Form and metre

Canto I IX 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 92%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: below / brow, song / tongue, low / now, eternity / sea, be / eternity and 1 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 hall^A · pile^B · fall^A · aisle^B · vile^B · den^C · smile^B · agen^C · men^C
2 ABABBCBCC mood^A · brow^B · feud^A · below^B · know^B · soul^C · flow^B · condole^C · control^C
3 ABABBCBCC bower^A · near^B · hour^A · cheer^B · dear^B · care^C · feere^B · glare^C · despair^C

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
The Childe departed from his father's hall;	10	··˘/˘··/˘·
It was a vast and venerable pile;	10	·····/˘˘˘·
So old, it seemed only not to fall,	10	····˘/˘···
Yet strength was pillared in each massy aisle.	10	···/˘··/˘·
Monastic dome! condemned to uses vile!	10	˘/˘·˘/·/˘·
Where superstition once had made her den,	10	··˘/˘·····
Now Paphian girls were known to sing and smile;	11	·/˘˘·······
And monks might deem their time was come agen,	10	········˘/
If ancient tales say true, nor wrong these holy men.	12	·/˘······/˘·
Yet ofttimes in his maddest mirthful mood,	10	·/˘··/˘/˘·
Strange pangs would flash along Childe Harold's brow,	10	····˘/·/˘·
As if the memory of some deadly feud	10	···/˘··/˘·
Or disappointed passion lurked below:	10	··˘/˘/˘···
But this none knew, nor haply cared to know;	10	·····/˘···
For his was not that open, artless soul	10	·····/˘/˘·
That feels relief by bidding sorrow flow;	10	··˘/·/˘/˘·
Nor sought he friend to counsel or condole,	10	·····/˘·˘/
Whate'er this grief mote be, which he could not control.	13	˘˘/········˘/
And none did love him: though to hall and bower	11	·········/˘
He gathered revellers from far and near,	10	·/˘/˘˘····
He knew them flatterers of the festal hour;	11	········/˘/
The heartless parasites of present cheer.	10	·/˘/˘··/˘·
Yea, none did love him--not his lemans dear--	10	·······/˘·
But pomp and power alone are woman's care,	10	···/˘/·/˘·
And where these are light Eros finds a feere;	10	·····/˘···
Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare,	10	/˘···/˘···
And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.	12	·/˘·······˘/

Notes from the edition 4

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 8 [The brass eagle which was fished out of the lake at Newstead in the time of Byron's predecessor contained, among other documents, "a grant of full pardon from Henry V. of every possible crime ... which the monks might have committed previous to the 8th of December preceding (Murdris, per ipsos post decimum nonum Diem Novembris, ultimo praeteritum perpetratis, si quae fuerint, exceptis)" (Life, p. 2, note). The monks were a constant source of delight to the Newstead "revellers." Francis Hodgson, in his "Lines on a Ruined Abbey in a Romantic Country" (Poems, 1809), does not spare them--

"'Hail, venerable pile!' whose ivied walls Proclaim the desolating lapse of years: And hail, ye hills, and murmuring waterfalls, Where yet her head the ruin'd Abbey rears. No longer now the matin tolling bell, Re-echoing loud among the woody glade, Calls the fat abbot from his drowsy cell, And warns the maid to flee, if yet a maid. No longer now the festive bowl goes round, Nor monks get drunk in honour of their God."]
Stanza 3, line 1 [The "trivial particular" which suggested to Byron the friendlessness and desolation of the Childe may be explained by the refusal of an old schoolfellow to spend the last day with him before he set out on his travels. The friend, possibly Lord Delawarr, excused himself on the plea that "he was engaged with his mother and some ladies to go shopping." "Friendship!" he exclaimed to Dallas. "I do not believe I shall leave behind me, yourself and family excepted, and, perhaps, my mother, a single being who will care what becomes of me" (Dallas, Recollections, etc., pp. 63, 64). Byron, to quote Charles Lamb's apology for Coleridge, was "full of fun," and must not be taken too seriously. Doubtless he was piqued at the moment, and afterwards, to heighten the tragedy of Childe Harold's exile, expanded a single act of negligence into general abandonment and desertion at the hour of trial.]
Stanza 3, line 5 The word "lemman" is used by Chaucer in both senses, but more frequently in the feminine.--[MS. M.]
Stanza 3, line 7 "Feere," a consort or mate. [Compare the line, "What when lords go with their feires, she said," in "The Ancient Fragment of the Marriage of Sir Gawaine" (Percy's Reliques, 1812, iii. 416), and the lines--

"As with the woful fere, And father of that chaste dishonoured dame." Titus Andronicus, act iv. sc. 1.

Compare, too, "That woman and her fleshless Pheere" (The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, line 180 of the reprint from the first version in the Lyrical Ballads, 1798; Poems by S. T. Coleridge, 1893, App. E, p. 515).]

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