Canto I VI
Childe Harold basked him in the noontide sun,Disporting there like any other fly,Nor deemed before his little day was doneOne blast might chill him into misery.But long ere scarce a third of his passed by,Worse than adversity the Childe befell;He felt the fulness of satiety:Then loathed he in his native land to dwell,Which seemed to him more lone than eremite's sad cell.
For he through Sin's long labyrinth had run,Nor made atonement when he did amiss,Had sighed to many, though he loved but one,And that loved one, alas, could ne'er be his.Ah, happy she! to 'scape from him whose kissHad been pollution unto aught so chaste;Who soon had left her charms for vulgar bliss,And spoiled her goodly lands to gild his waste,Nor calm domestic peace had ever deigned to taste.
And now Childe Harold was sore sick at heart,And from his fellow bacchanals would flee;'Tis said, at times the sullen tear would start,But pride congealed the drop within his e'e:Apart he stalked in joyless reverie,And from his native land resolved to go,And visit scorching climes beyond the sea;With pleasure drugged, he almost longed for woe,And e'en for change of scene would seek the shades below.
Words in this poem
- childe n.
- A cognomen formerly prefixed to his name by the oldest son, until he succeeded to his ancestral titles, or was knighted; as, Childe Roland.
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- adversity n.
- Opposition; contrariety. Wyclif. [OE. adversite, F. adversité, fr. L. adversitas.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- goodly a.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable. [OE. godlich, AS. g. See Good, and Like.]
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- joyless a.
- Not having joy; not causing joy; unenjoyable.
- reverie n.
- A loose or irregular train of thought occurring in musing or mediation; deep musing; daydream. [F. réverie, fr. rêver to dream, rave, be light-headed. Cf. Rave.]
- scorching a.
- Burning; parching or shriveling with heat.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I VI 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 VI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-vi.html, id L06477.
Form and metre
Canto I VI 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 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 7% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: brow / flow, none / upon, come / home, come / roam, beneath / breathe and 47 more.
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 sunA · flyB · doneA · miseryB · byB · befellC · satietyB · dwellC · cellC
- 2 ABABBCBCC runA · amissB · oneA · hisB · kissB · chasteC · blissB · wasteC · tasteC
- 3 ABABBCBCC heartA · fleeB · startA · e'eB · reverieB · goC · seaB · woeC · belowC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Childe Harold basked him in the noontide sun, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Disporting there like any other fly, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Nor deemed before his little day was done | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| One blast might chill him into misery. | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| But long ere scarce a third of his passed by, | 10 | ·········· |
| Worse than adversity the Childe befell; | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| He felt the fulness of satiety: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Then loathed he in his native land to dwell, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which seemed to him more lone than eremite's sad cell. | 12 | ············ |
| For he through Sin's long labyrinth had run, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Nor made atonement when he did amiss, | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Had sighed to many, though he loved but one, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And that loved one, alas, could ne'er be his. | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Ah, happy she! to 'scape from him whose kiss | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Had been pollution unto aught so chaste; | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Who soon had left her charms for vulgar bliss, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And spoiled her goodly lands to gild his waste, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor calm domestic peace had ever deigned to taste. | 11 | ··˘/˘··/··· |
| And now Childe Harold was sore sick at heart, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And from his fellow bacchanals would flee; | 10 | ···/˘˘/˘·· |
| 'Tis said, at times the sullen tear would start, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But pride congealed the drop within his e'e: | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Apart he stalked in joyless reverie, | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘˘ |
| And from his native land resolved to go, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| And visit scorching climes beyond the sea; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| With pleasure drugged, he almost longed for woe, | 10 | ·/˘··/···· |
| And e'en for change of scene would seek the shades below. | 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 2, line 3 [Mary Chaworth. (Compare "Stanzas to a Lady, on leaving England," passim: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 285.)]
- Stanza 3, line 4 [Compare The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto I, stanza ix. 9--
"And burning pride and high disdain Forbade the rising tears to flow."] - Stanza 3, line 7 [Vide post, stanza xi. line 9, note.]
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.