Canto I LXVII
Fair is proud Seville; let her country boastHer strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days,But Cadiz, rising on the distant coast,Calls forth a sweeter, though ignoble praise.Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways!While boyish blood is mantling, who can 'scapeThe fascination of thy magic gaze?A cherub-hydra round us dost thou gape,And mould to every taste thy dear delusive shape.
When Paphos fell by Time--accursed Time!The Queen who conquers all must yield to thee--The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime;And Venus, constant to her native sea,To nought else constant, hither deigned to flee,And fixed her shrine within these walls of white;Though not to one dome circumscribeth sheHer worship, but, devoted to her rite,A thousand altars rise, for ever blazing bright.
From morn till night, from night till startled mornPeeps blushing on the revel's laughing crew,The song is heard, the rosy garland worn;Devices quaint, and frolics ever new,Tread on each other's kibes. A long adieuHe bids to sober joy that here sojourns:Nought interrupts the riot, though in lieuOf true devotion monkish incense burns,And love and prayer unite, or rule the hour by turns.
Words in this poem
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- boyish a.
- Resembling a boy in a manners or opinions; belonging to a boy; childish; trifling; puerile.
- mantling n.
- The representation of a mantle, or the drapery behind and around a coat of arms: -- called also lambrequin.
- fascination n.
- The act of fascinating, bewhiching, or enchanting; enchantment; witchcraft; the exercise of a powerful or irresistible influence on the affections or passions; unseen, inexplicable influence. [L. fascinatio; cf. F. fascination.]
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- quaint a.
- Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise, cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable, agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere to ]
- monkish a.
- Like a monk, or pertaining to monks; monastic; as, monkish manners; monkish dress; monkish solitude.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I LXVII 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 LXVII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-lxvii.html, id L06498.
Form and metre
Canto I LXVII 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 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% 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 boastA · daysB · coastA · praiseB · waysB · scapeC · gazeB · gapeC · shapeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC timeA · theeB · climeA · seaB · fleeB · whiteC · sheB · riteC · brightC
- 3 ABABBCBCC mornA · crewB · wornA · newB · adieuB · sojournsC · lieuB · burnsC · turnsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast | 10 | ···˘/··/˘· |
| Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But Cadiz, rising on the distant coast, | 10 | ·˘//˘··/˘· |
| Calls forth a sweeter, though ignoble praise. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Ah, Vice! how soft are thy voluptuous ways! | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| While boyish blood is mantling, who can 'scape | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The fascination of thy magic gaze? | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| A cherub-hydra round us dost thou gape, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And mould to every taste thy dear delusive shape. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
| When Paphos fell by Time--accursed Time! | 10 | ········˘· |
| The Queen who conquers all must yield to thee-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And Venus, constant to her native sea, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| To nought else constant, hither deigned to flee, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And fixed her shrine within these walls of white; | 10 | ·········· |
| Though not to one dome circumscribeth she | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Her worship, but, devoted to her rite, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| A thousand altars rise, for ever blazing bright. | 11 | ·/˘/˘··//˘· |
| From morn till night, from night till startled morn | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Peeps blushing on the revel's laughing crew, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| The song is heard, the rosy garland worn; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Devices quaint, and frolics ever new, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Tread on each other's kibes. A long adieu | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| He bids to sober joy that here sojourns: | 10 | ···/˘···/˘ |
| Nought interrupts the riot, though in lieu | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Of true devotion monkish incense burns, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/·· |
| And love and prayer unite, or rule the hour by turns. | 12 | ····/····/·· |
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 1 Seville was the Hispalis of the Romans.
- Stanza 1, line 3 [In his first letter from Spain (to F. Hodgson, August 6, 1809) Byron exclaims, "Cadiz, sweet Cadiz!--it is the first spot in the creation ... Cadiz is a complete Cythera." See, too, letter to Mrs. Byron, August 11, 1809 (Letters, 1898, i. 234, 239).]
- Stanza 2, line 9 [It must not be supposed that the "thousand altars" of Cadiz correspond with and are in contrast to the "one dome" of Paphos. The point is that where Venus fixes her shrine, at Paphos or at Cadiz, altars blaze and worshippers abound (compare AEneid, i. 415-417)--
"Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit Laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo Ture calent arae."] - Stanza 3, line 1 [Compare Milton's Paradise Lost, i.--
... from morn To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.] - Stanza 3, line 5 [It was seldom that Byron's memory played him false, but here a vague recollection of a Shakespearian phrase has beguiled him into a blunder. He is thinking of Hamlet's jibe on the corruption of manners, "The age is grown so picked that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe" (act v. sc. 1, line 150), and he forgets that a kibe is not a heel or a part of a heel, but a chilblain.]
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