Canto I LXXXIV
Yet to the beauteous form he was not blind,Though now it moved him as it moves the wise;Not that Philosophy on such a mindE'er deigned to bend her chastely-awful eyes:But Passion raves itself to rest, or flies;And Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb,Had buried long his hopes, no more to rise:Pleasure's palled victim! life-abhorring gloomWrote on his faded brow curst Cain's unresting doom.
Still he beheld, nor mingled with the throng;But viewed them not with misanthropic hate;Fain would he now have joined the dance, the song,But who may smile that sinks beneath his fate?Nought that he saw his sadness could abate:Yet once he struggled 'gainst the demon's sway,And as in Beauty's bower he pensive sate,Poured forth this unpremeditated lay,To charms as fair as those that soothed his happier day.
Words in this poem
- beauteous a.
- Full of beauty; beautiful; very handsome. [Mostly poetic] -- Beau"te*ous*ly, adv. --
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- curst a.
- Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [SeeCurse.]
- misanthropic a.
- Hating or disliking mankind. [Cf. F. misanthropique.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- sate v. t.
- To satisfy the desire or appetite of; to satiate; to glut; to surfeit. [Probably shortened fr. satiate: cf. L. satus full. See Satiate.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I LXXXIV 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 LXXXIV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-lxxxiv.html, id L06504.
Form and metre
Canto I LXXXIV is 18 lines in 2 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 88%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 11% 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 blindA · wiseB · mindA · eyesB · fliesB · tombC · riseB · gloomC · doomC
- 2 ABABBCBCC throngA · hateB · songA · fateB · abateB · swayC · sateB · layC · dayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yet to the beauteous form he was not blind, | 11 | ···/˘˘····· |
| Though now it moved him as it moves the wise; | 10 | ·········· |
| Not that Philosophy on such a mind | 10 | ··˘/˘˘···· |
| E'er deigned to bend her chastely-awful eyes: | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| But Passion raves itself to rest, or flies; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| And Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Had buried long his hopes, no more to rise: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Pleasure's palled victim! life-abhorring gloom | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's unresting doom. | 12 | ···/˘···˘/˘· |
| Still he beheld, nor mingled with the throng; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| But viewed them not with misanthropic hate; | 10 | ·········· |
| Fain would he now have joined the dance, the song, | 10 | ·········· |
| But who may smile that sinks beneath his fate? | 10 | ·········· |
| Nought that he saw his sadness could abate: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Yet once he struggled 'gainst the demon's sway, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And as in Beauty's bower he pensive sate, | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| Poured forth this unpremeditated lay, | 10 | ·········· |
| To charms as fair as those that soothed his happier day. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
Notes from the edition 2
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 5 [The Dallas Transcript reads "itself," but the MS. and earlier editions "herself."]
- Stanza 1, line 9 [Byron's belief or, rather, haunting dread, that he was predestined to evil is to be traced to the Calvinistic teaching of his boyhood (compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 8, 9; and Canto IV. stanza xxxiv. line 6). Lady Byron regarded this creed of despair as the secret of her husband's character, and the source of his aberrations. In a letter to H. C. Robinson, March 5, 1855, she writes, "Not merely from casual expressions, but from the whole tenour of Lord Byron's feelings, I could not but conclude he was a believer in the inspiration of the Bible, and had the gloomiest Calvinistic tenets. To that unhappy view of the relation of the creature to the Creator, I have always ascribed the misery of his life.... Instead of being made happier by any apparent good, he felt convinced that every blessing would be 'turned into a curse' to him. Who, possessed by such ideas, could lead a life of love and service to God or man? They must in a measure realize themselves. 'The worst of it is, I do believe,' he said. I, like all connected with him, was broken against the rock of predestination."]
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