Canto I LXXXVII
Adieu, fair Cadiz! yea, a long adieu!Who may forget how well thy walls have stood?When all were changing, thou alone wert true,First to be free, and last to be subdued.And if amidst a scene, a shock so rude,Some native blood was seen thy streets to dye,A traitor only fell beneath the feud:Here all were noble, save nobility;None hugged a conqueror's chain save fallen Chivalry!
Such be the sons of Spain, and strange her fate!They fight for freedom, who were never free;A kingless people for a nerveless state,Her vassals combat when their chieftains flee,True to the veriest slaves of Treachery;Fond of a land which gave them nought but life,Pride points the path that leads to liberty;Back to the struggle, baffled in the strife,War, war is still the cry, 'War even to the knife!'
Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know,Go, read whate'er is writ of bloodiest strife:Whate'er keen Vengeance urged on foreign foeCan act, is acting there against man's life:From flashing scimitar to secret knife,War mouldeth there each weapon to his need--So may he guard the sister and the wife,So may he make each curst oppressor bleed,So may such foes deserve the most remorseless deed!
Words in this poem
- 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]
- kingless a.
- Having no king. F. Lieber.
- nerveless a.
- Destitute of nerves.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- scimitar n.
- A saber with a much curved blade having the edge on the convex side, -- in use among Mohammedans, esp., the Arabs and persians. [F. cimeterre, cf. It. scimitarra, Sp. cimitarra; fr. Biscayan cimetarry with a sharp edge; or corrupted from Per. shimshir.]
- curst a.
- Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [SeeCurse.]
- oppressor n.
- One who oppresses; one who imposes unjust burdens on others; one who harasses others with unjust laws or unreasonable severity. [L.]
- remorseless a.
- Being without remorse; having no pity; hence, destitute of sensibility; cruel; insensible to distress; merciless.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I LXXXVII 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 LXXXVII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-lxxxvii.html, id L26202.
Form and metre
Canto I LXXXVII 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 87%).
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 adieuA · stoodB · trueA · subduedB · rudeB · dyeC · feudB · nobilityC · chivalryC
- 2 ABABBCBCC fateA · freeB · stateA · fleeB · treacheryB · lifeC · libertyB · strifeC · knifeC
- 3 ABABBCBCC knowA · strifeB · foeA · lifeB · knifeB · needC · wifeB · bleedC · deedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Adieu, fair Cadiz! yea, a long adieu! | 10 | ˘/·˘/···˘/ |
| Who may forget how well thy walls have stood? | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| When all were changing, thou alone wert true, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| First to be free, and last to be subdued. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And if amidst a scene, a shock so rude, | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Some native blood was seen thy streets to dye, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| A traitor only fell beneath the feud: | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Here all were noble, save nobility; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| None hugged a conqueror's chain save fallen Chivalry! | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Such be the sons of Spain, and strange her fate! | 10 | ·········· |
| They fight for freedom, who were never free; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A kingless people for a nerveless state, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Her vassals combat when their chieftains flee, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| True to the veriest slaves of Treachery; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Fond of a land which gave them nought but life, | 10 | ·········· |
| Pride points the path that leads to liberty; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Back to the struggle, baffled in the strife, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| War, war is still the cry, 'War even to the knife!' | 11 | ·······/··· |
| Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Go, read whate'er is writ of bloodiest strife: | 11 | ··˘˘/···/˘· |
| Whate'er keen Vengeance urged on foreign foe | 11 | ˘˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Can act, is acting there against man's life: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| From flashing scimitar to secret knife, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| War mouldeth there each weapon to his need-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| So may he guard the sister and the wife, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| So may he make each curst oppressor bleed, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| So may such foes deserve the most remorseless deed! | 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 4 [Cadiz was captured from the Moors by Alonso el Sabio, in 1262. It narrowly escaped a siege, January-February, 1810. Soult commenced a "serious bombardment," May 16, 1812, but, three months later, August 24, the siege was broken up. Stanza lxxxv. is not in the original MS.]
- Stanza 1, line 7 Alluding to the conduct and death of Solano, the governor of Cadiz, in May, 1808.
[The Marquis of Solano, commander-in-chief of the forces at Cadiz, was murdered by the populace. The "Supreme Junta" of Seville had directed him to attack the French fleet anchored off Cadiz, and Admiral Purvis, acting in concert with General Spencer, had offered to co-operate, but Solano was unwilling to take his orders "from a self-constituted authority, and hesitated to commit his country in war with a power whose strength he knew better than the temper of his countrymen." "His abilities, courage, and unblemished character have never been denied."--Napier's War in the Peninsula, i. 20, 21.] - Stanza 2, line 3 [Charles IV. abdicated March 19, 1808, in favour of his son Ferdinand VII.; and in the following May, Charles once more abdicated on his own behalf, and Ferdinand for himself and his heirs, in favour of Napoleon. Thenceforward Charles was an exile, and Ferdinand a prisoner at Valencay, and Spain, so far as the Bourbons were concerned, remained "kingless," until motives of policy procured the release of the latter, who re-entered his kingdom March 22, 1814.]
- Stanza 2, line 9 "War to the knife." Palafox's answer to the French general at the siege of Saragoza.
[Towards the close of the first siege of Zaragoza, August 5, 1808, Marshal Lefebvre (1755-1820), under the impression that the city had fallen into his hands, "required Palafox to surrender in these words: 'Quartel-general, Santa Engracia. La Capitulation!' ['Head-quarters, St. Engracia. Capitulation']. The reply was, 'Quartel-general, Zaragoza. Guerra al cuchillo' ['Head-quarters, Zaragoza. War at the knife's point']." Subsequently, December, 1808, when Moncey (1754-1842) again called upon him to surrender, he appealed to the people of Madrid. "The dogs," he said, "by whom he was beset scarcely left him time to clean his sword from their blood; but they still found their grave at Zaragoza." Southey notes that "all Palafox's proclamations had the high tone and something of the inflection of Spanish romance, suiting the character of those to whom it was directed" (Peninsular War, ii. 25; iii. 152; Narrative of the Siege, by C. R. Vaughan, 1809, pp. 22, 23). Napier, whose account of the first siege of Zaragoza is based on Caballero's Victoires et Conquetes des Francais, and on the Journal of Lefebvre's Operations (MSS.), does not record these romantic incidents. He attributes the raising of the siege to the "bad discipline of the French, and the system of terror established by the Spanish leaders." The inspirers and proclaimers of "war even to the knife" were, he maintains, Tio or Goodman Jorge (Jorge Ibort) and Tio Murin, and not Palafox, who was ignorant of war, and who, on more than one occasion, was careful to provide for his own safety (History of the War in the Peninsula, i. 41-46).]
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