Canto I XII
Childe Harold had a mother--not forgot,Though parting from that mother he did shun;A sister whom he loved, but saw her notBefore his weary pilgrimage begun:If friends he had, he bade adieu to none.Yet deem not thence his breast a breast of steel;Ye, who have known what 'tis to dote uponA few dear objects, will in sadness feelSuch partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal.
His house, his home, his heritage, his lands,The laughing dames in whom he did delight,Whose large blue eyes, fair locks, and snowy hands,Might shake the saintship of an anchorite,And long had fed his youthful appetite;His goblets brimmed with every costly wine,And all that mote to luxury invite,Without a sigh he left to cross the brine,And traverse Paynim shores, and pass earth's central line.
The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blewAs glad to waft him from his native home;And fast the white rocks faded from his view,And soon were lost in circumambient foam;And then, it may be, of his wish to roamRepented he, but in his bosom sleptThe silent thought, nor from his lips did comeOne word of wail, whilst others sate and wept,And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept.
Words in this poem 15
- 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.
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
- bade
- A form of the pat tense of Bid.
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- dote n.
- A marriage portion. See 1st Dot, n. Wyatt. [See Dot dowry.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- snowy a.
- White like snow.
- saintship n.
- The character or qualities of a saint.
- anchorite n.
- One who renounces the world and secludes himself, usually for religious reasons; a hermit; a recluse. [Written by some authors anachoret.] [F. anachorète, L. anachoreta, fr. Gr. ha to leave. Cf. Anchor a hermit.]
- mote n.
- A meeting of persons for discussion; as, a wardmote in the city of London. [See Moot, a meeting.]
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- circumambient a.
- Surrounding; inclosing or being on all sides; encompassing. [Pref. circum- + ambient.]
- 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 XII 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 XII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-xii.html, id L06479.
Form and metre
Canto I XII 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 92%). 97% 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. 26% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: lost / most, given / heaven, forth / worth, is / this.
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 forgotA · shunB · notA · begunB · noneB · steelC · uponB · feelC · healC
- 2 ABABBCBCC landsA · delightB · handsA · anchoriteB · appetiteB · wineC · inviteB · brineC · lineC
- 3 ABABBCBCC blewA · homeB · viewA · foamB · roamB · sleptC · comeB · weptC · keptC
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 had a mother--not forgot, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Though parting from that mother he did shun; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| A sister whom he loved, but saw her not | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Before his weary pilgrimage begun: | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘˘/ |
| If friends he had, he bade adieu to none. | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Yet deem not thence his breast a breast of steel; | 10 | ·········· |
| Ye, who have known what 'tis to dote upon | 10 | ·········· |
| A few dear objects, will in sadness feel | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Such partings break the heart they fondly hope to heal. | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| His house, his home, his heritage, his lands, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The laughing dames in whom he did delight, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Whose large blue eyes, fair locks, and snowy hands, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Might shake the saintship of an anchorite, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘˘ |
| And long had fed his youthful appetite; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| His goblets brimmed with every costly wine, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And all that mote to luxury invite, | 10 | ·····/˘˘˘/ |
| Without a sigh he left to cross the brine, | 10 | ·········· |
| And traverse Paynim shores, and pass earth's central line. | 12 | ·/˘/˘····/˘· |
| The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blew | 10 | ·········· |
| As glad to waft him from his native home; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And fast the white rocks faded from his view, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And soon were lost in circumambient foam; | 10 | ·········· |
| And then, it may be, of his wish to roam | 10 | ·········· |
| Repented he, but in his bosom slept | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| The silent thought, nor from his lips did come | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| One word of wail, whilst others sate and wept, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And to the reckless gales unmanly moaning kept. | 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 3 [In a suppressed stanza of "Childe Harold's Good Night" (see p. 27, var. ii.), the Childe complains that he has not seen his sister for "three long years and moe." Before her marriage, in 1807, Augusta Byron divided her time between her mother's children, Lady Chichester and the Duke of Leeds; her cousin, Lord Carlisle; and General and Mrs. Harcourt. After her marriage to Colonel Leigh, she lived at Newmarket. From the end of 1805 Byron corresponded with her more or less regularly, but no meeting took place. In a letter to his sister, dated November 30, 1808 (Letters, 1898, i. 203), he writes, "I saw Col. Leigh at Brighton in July, where I should have been glad to have seen you; I only know your husband by sight." Colonel Leigh was his first cousin, as well as his half-sister's husband, and the incidental remark that "he only knew him by sight" affords striking proof that his relations and connections were at no pains to seek him out, but left him to fight his own way to social recognition and distinction. (For particulars of "the Hon. Augusta Byron," see Letters, 1898, i. 18, note.)]
- Stanza 1, line 6 [Compare Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming, ii. 8. 1--"Yet deem not Gertrude sighed for foreign joy."]
- Stanza 2, line 9 "Your objection to the expression 'central line' I can only meet by saying that, before Childe Harold left England, it was his full intention to traverse Persia, and return by India, which he could not have done without passing the equinoctial" (letter to Dallas, September 7, 1811; see, too, letter to his mother, October 7, 1808: Letters, 1898, i. 193; ii. 27).
- Stanza 3, line 6 He experienced no such emotion on the resumption of his Pilgrimage in 1816. With reference to the confession, he writes (Canto III. stanza i. lines 6-9)--
"... I depart, Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by, When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye."
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.