Canto I LII
And whomsoe'er along the path you meetBears in his cap the badge of crimson hue,Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet:Woe to the man that walks in public viewWithout of loyalty this token true:Sharp is the knife, and sudden is the stroke;And sorely would the Gallic foemen rue,If subtle poniards, wrapt beneath the cloak,Could blunt the sabre's edge, or clear the cannon's smoke.
At every turn Morena's dusky heightSustains aloft the battery's iron load;And, far as mortal eye can compass sight,The mountain-howitzer, the broken road,The bristling palisade, the fosse o'erflowed,The stationed bands, the never-vacant watch,The magazine in rocky durance stowed,The holstered steed beneath the shed of thatch,The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match,
Portend the deeds to come:--but he whose nodHas tumbled feebler despots from their sway,A moment pauseth ere he lifts the rod;A little moment deigneth to delay:Soon will his legions sweep through these the way;The West must own the Scourger of the world.Ah, Spain! how sad will be thy reckoning day,When soars Gaul's Vulture, with his wings unfurled,And thou shalt view thy sons in crowds to Hades hurled.
Words in this poem
- sorely adv.
- In a sore manner; grievously; painfully; as, to be sorely afflicted.
- palisade n.
- A strong, long stake, one end of which is set firmly in the ground, and the other is sharpened; also, a fence formed of such stakes set in the ground as a means of defense. [F. palissade, cf. Sp. palizada, It. palizzata, palizzo, LL. palissata; all fr. L. palus a stake, pale. See Pale a stake.]
- fosse n.
- A ditch or moat. [F., fr. L. fossa, fr. fodere, fossum, to dig.]
- durance n.
- Continuance; duration. See Endurance. [OF. durance duration, fr. L. durans, -antis, p. pr. durare to endure, last. See Dure, and cf. Durant.]
- holstered a.
- Bearing holsters.
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- portend v. t.
- To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshow; to foretoken; to bode; -- now used esp. of unpropitious signs. [L. portendre, portentum, to foretell, to predict, to impend, from an old preposition used in comp. + tendere to stretch. See Position, Tend.]
- scourger n.
- One who scourges or punishes; one who afflicts severely.
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I LII 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 LII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-lii.html, id L06493.
Form and metre
Canto I LII 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%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.1 syllables. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
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 meetA · hueB · greetA · viewB · trueB · strokeC · rueB · cloakC · smokeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC heightA · loadB · sightA · roadB · o'erflowedB · watchC · stowedB · thatchC · matchC
- 3 ABABBCBCC nodA · swayB · rodA · delayB · wayB · worldC · dayB · unfurledC · hurledC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And whomsoe'er along the path you meet | 9 | ···˘/···· |
| Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet: | 10 | ·········· |
| Woe to the man that walks in public view | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Without of loyalty this token true: | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Sharp is the knife, and sudden is the stroke; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And sorely would the Gallic foemen rue, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| If subtle poniards, wrapt beneath the cloak, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Could blunt the sabre's edge, or clear the cannon's smoke. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| At every turn Morena's dusky height | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Sustains aloft the battery's iron load; | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘˘/· |
| And, far as mortal eye can compass sight, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The mountain-howitzer, the broken road, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| The bristling palisade, the fosse o'erflowed, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| The stationed bands, the never-vacant watch, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The magazine in rocky durance stowed, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The holstered steed beneath the shed of thatch, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match, | 10 | ···/˘·//˘· |
| Portend the deeds to come:--but he whose nod | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Has tumbled feebler despots from their sway, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A moment pauseth ere he lifts the rod; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| A little moment deigneth to delay: | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Soon will his legions sweep through these the way; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The West must own the Scourger of the world. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ah, Spain! how sad will be thy reckoning day, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| When soars Gaul's Vulture, with his wings unfurled, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And thou shalt view thy sons in crowds to Hades hurled. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
Notes from the edition 3
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 2 The red cockade, with "Fernando Septimo" in the centre.
- Stanza 2, line 1 [The Sierra Morena gets its name from the classical Montes Mariani, not, as Byron seems to imply, from its dark and dusky aspect.]
- Stanza 2, line 9 All who have seen a battery will recollect the pyramidal form in which shot and shells are piled. The Sierra Morena was fortified in every defile through which I passed in my way to Seville.
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