Canto I LXIV
Happier in this than mightiest bards have been,Whose fate to distant homes confined their lot,Shall I unmoved behold the hallowed scene,Which others rave of, though they know it not?Though here no more Apollo haunts his grot,And thou, the Muses' seat, art now their grave,Some gentle spirit still pervades the spot,Sighs in the gale, keeps silence in the cave,And glides with glassy foot o'er yon melodious wave.
Of thee hereafter.--Even amidst my strainI turned aside to pay my homage here;Forgot the land, the sons, the maids of Spain;Her fate, to every free-born bosom dear;And hailed thee, not perchance without a tear.Now to my theme--but from thy holy hauntLet me some remnant, some memorial bear;Yield me one leaf of Daphne's deathless plant,Nor let thy votary's hope be deemed an idle vaunt.
But ne'er didst thou, fair mount, when Greece was young,See round thy giant base a brighter choir;Nor e'er did Delphi, when her priestess sungThe Pythian hymn with more than mortal fire,Behold a train more fitting to inspireThe song of love than Andalusia's maids,Nurst in the glowing lap of soft desire:Ah! that to these were given such peaceful shadesAs Greece can still bestow, though Glory fly her glades.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
- hereafter adv.
- In time to come; in some future time or state. [AS. hræfter.]
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- deathless a.
- Not subject to death, destruction, or extinction; immortal; undying; imperishable; as, deathless beings; deathless fame.
- didst
- , the 2d pers. sing. imp. of Do.
- priestess n.
- A woman who officiated in sacred rites among pagans. Abp.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I LXIV 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 LXIV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-lxiv.html, id L06497.
Form and metre
Canto I LXIV 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 91%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 18% 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 beenA · lotB · sceneA · notB · grotB · graveC · spotB · caveC · waveC
- 2 ABABBCBCC strainA · hereB · spainA · dearB · tearB · hauntC · bearB · plantC · vauntC
- 3 ABABBCBCC youngA · choirB · sungA · fireB · inspireB · maidsC · desireB · shadesC · gladesC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Happier in this than mightiest bards have been, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Whose fate to distant homes confined their lot, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Shall I unmoved behold the hallowed scene, | 10 | ··˘/˘/·/˘· |
| Which others rave of, though they know it not? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Though here no more Apollo haunts his grot, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And thou, the Muses' seat, art now their grave, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Some gentle spirit still pervades the spot, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Sighs in the gale, keeps silence in the cave, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And glides with glassy foot o'er yon melodious wave. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
| Of thee hereafter.--Even amidst my strain | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/·· |
| I turned aside to pay my homage here; | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Forgot the land, the sons, the maids of Spain; | 10 | ˘/········ |
| Her fate, to every free-born bosom dear; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And hailed thee, not perchance without a tear. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Now to my theme--but from thy holy haunt | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Let me some remnant, some memorial bear; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Yield me one leaf of Daphne's deathless plant, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Nor let thy votary's hope be deemed an idle vaunt. | 13 | ··········/˘· |
| But ne'er didst thou, fair mount, when Greece was young, | 10 | ·········· |
| See round thy giant base a brighter choir; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Nor e'er did Delphi, when her priestess sung | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The Pythian hymn with more than mortal fire, | 11 | ·/˘˘····/˘/ |
| Behold a train more fitting to inspire | 10 | ˘/···/˘·˘/ |
| The song of love than Andalusia's maids, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Nurst in the glowing lap of soft desire: | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Ah! that to these were given such peaceful shades | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| As Greece can still bestow, though Glory fly her glades. | 12 | ····˘/·/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 1
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 3, line 2 ["Parnassus ... is distinguished from all other Greek mountains by its mighty mass. This, with its vast buttresses, almost fills up the rest of the country" (Geography of Greece, by H.F. Tozer, 1873, p. 226).]
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