Canto I XVI
On, on the vessel flies, the land is gone,And winds are rude in Biscay's sleepless bay.Four days are sped, but with the fifth, anon,New shores descried make every bosom gay;And Cintra's mountain greets them on their way,And Tagus dashing onward to the deep,His fabled golden tribute bent to pay;And soon on board the Lusian pilots leap,And steer 'twixt fertile shores where yet few rustics reap.
Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to seeWhat Heaven hath done for this delicious land!What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree!What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand!But man would mar them with an impious hand:And when the Almighty lifts his fiercest scourge'Gainst those who most transgress his high command,With treble vengeance will his hot shafts urgeGaul's locust host, and earth from fellest foemen purge.
What beauties doth Lisboa first unfold!Her image floating on that noble tide,Which poets vainly pave with sands of gold,But now whereon a thousand keels did rideOf mighty strength, since Albion was allied,And to the Lusians did her aid affordA nation swoll'n with ignorance and pride,Who lick, yet loathe, the hand that waves the sword.To save them from the wrath of Gaul's unsparing lord.
Words in this poem
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
- reap n.
- A bundle of grain; a handful of grain laid down by the reaper as it is cut. Wright. [Cf. AS. rip harvest. See Reap, v.]
- goodly a.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable. [OE. godlich, AS. g. See Good, and Like.]
- scourge n.
- A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip. [F. escourgée, fr. L. excoriata (sc. scutica) a stripped off (lash or whip), fr. excoriate to strip, to skin. See Excoriate.]
- pave n.
- The pavement. Nymphe du pavé ([A low euphemism.] [F., from paver to pave. See Pave.]
- whereon adv.
- On which; -- used relatively; as, the earth whereon we live.
- keels n.
- Ninepins. See Kayles.
- albion n.
- An ancient name of England, still retained in poetry. [Prob. from the same root as Gael. alp a height or hill. "It may have been bestowed on the land lying behind the white cliffs visible from the coast of Gaul. Alb]
- unsparing a.
- Not sparing; not parsimonious; liberal; profuse. Burke. [Pref. un- not + sparing, p. pr. of spare.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I XVI 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 XVI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-xvi.html, id L06481.
Form and metre
Canto I XVI 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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 18% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end. Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: afar / war, star / war.
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 goneA · bayB · anonA · gayB · wayB · deepC · payB · leapC · reapC
- 2 ABABBCBCC seeA · landB · treeA · expandB · handB · scourgeC · commandB · urgeC · purgeC
- 3 ABABBCBCC unfoldA · tideB · goldA · rideB · alliedB · affordC · prideB · swordC · lordC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| On, on the vessel flies, the land is gone, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And winds are rude in Biscay's sleepless bay. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Four days are sped, but with the fifth, anon, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| New shores descried make every bosom gay; | 10 | ····/˘˘/˘· |
| And Cintra's mountain greets them on their way, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And Tagus dashing onward to the deep, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| His fabled golden tribute bent to pay; | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| And soon on board the Lusian pilots leap, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And steer 'twixt fertile shores where yet few rustics reap. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to see | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| What Heaven hath done for this delicious land! | 10 | ·/····˘/˘· |
| What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand! | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| But man would mar them with an impious hand: | 11 | ·······˘/˘· |
| And when the Almighty lifts his fiercest scourge | 11 | ···˘/˘··/˘· |
| 'Gainst those who most transgress his high command, | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| With treble vengeance will his hot shafts urge | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Gaul's locust host, and earth from fellest foemen purge. | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| What beauties doth Lisboa first unfold! | 9 | ·/˘····˘/ |
| Her image floating on that noble tide, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Which poets vainly pave with sands of gold, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| But now whereon a thousand keels did ride | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| Of mighty strength, since Albion was allied, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And to the Lusians did her aid afford | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A nation swoll'n with ignorance and pride, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Who lick, yet loathe, the hand that waves the sword. | 10 | ·········· |
| To save them from the wrath of Gaul's unsparing lord. | 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 5 [Cintra's "needle-like peaks," to the north-west of Lisbon, are visible from the mouth of the Tagus.]
- Stanza 1, line 7 [Compare Ovid, Amores, i. 15, and Pliny, Hist. Nat., iv. 22. Small particles of gold are still to be found in the sands of the Tagus, but the quantity is, and perhaps always was, inconsiderable.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 ["Lisboa is the Portuguese word, consequently the very best. Ulissipont is pedantic; and as I have Hellas and Eros not very long before, there would be something like an affectation of Greek terms, which I wish to avoid" (letter to Dallas, September 23, 1811: Letters, 1898, ii. 44. See, too, Poetical Works, 1883, p. 5).]
- Stanza 3, line 7 [For Byron's estimate of the Portuguese, see The Curse of Minerva, lines 233, 234, and note to line 231 (Poetical Works, 1898, i. 469, 470). In the last line of the preceding stanza, the substitution of the text for var. i. was no doubt suggested by Dallas in the interests of prudence.]
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