Canto I XXVIII
And ever since that martial synod met,Britannia sickens, Cintra, at thy name;And folks in office at the mention fret,And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame.How will posterity the deed proclaim!Will not our own and fellow-nations sneer,To view these champions cheated of their fame,By foes in fight o'erthrown, yet victors here,Where Scorn her finger points through many a coming year?
So deemed the Childe, as o'er the mountains heDid take his way in solitary guise:Sweet was the scene, yet soon he thought to flee,More restless than the swallow in the skies:Though here awhile he learned to moralise,For Meditation fixed at times on him,And conscious Reason whispered to despiseHis early youth misspent in maddest whim;But as he gazed on Truth, his aching eyes grew dim.
To horse! to horse! he quits, for ever quitsA scene of peace, though soothing to his soul:Again he rouses from his moping fits,But seeks not now the harlot and the bowl.Onward he flies, nor fixed as yet the goalWhere he shall rest him on his pilgrimage;And o'er him many changing scenes must roll,Ere toil his thirst for travel can assuage,Or he shall calm his breast, or learn experience sage.
Words in this poem
- britannia n.
- A white-metal alloy of tin, antimony, bismuth, copper, etc. It somewhat resembles silver, and isused for table ware. Called also Britannia metal. [From L. Britannia Great Britain.]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- 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.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
- moralise v. t.
- To apply to a moral purpose; to explain in a moral sense; to draw a moral from. [Cf. F. moraliser.]
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- aching a.
- That aches; continuously painful. See Ache.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I XXVIII 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 XXVIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-xxviii.html, id L06485.
Form and metre
Canto I XXVIII 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. 15% 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 metA · nameB · fretA · shameB · proclaimB · sneerC · fameB · hereC · yearC
- 2 ABABBCBCC heA · guiseB · fleeA · skiesB · moraliseB · himC · despiseB · whimC · dimC
- 3 ABABBCBCC quitsA · soulB · fitsA · bowlB · goalB · pilgrimageC · rollB · assuageC · sageC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And ever since that martial synod met, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Britannia sickens, Cintra, at thy name; | 10 | ˘/˘/˘····· |
| And folks in office at the mention fret, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame. | 10 | ·········· |
| How will posterity the deed proclaim! | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| Will not our own and fellow-nations sneer, | 10 | ··/··/˘/˘· |
| To view these champions cheated of their fame, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| By foes in fight o'erthrown, yet victors here, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Where Scorn her finger points through many a coming year? | 12 | ···/˘··/·/˘· |
| So deemed the Childe, as o'er the mountains he | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Did take his way in solitary guise: | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| Sweet was the scene, yet soon he thought to flee, | 10 | ·········· |
| More restless than the swallow in the skies: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Though here awhile he learned to moralise, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| For Meditation fixed at times on him, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| And conscious Reason whispered to despise | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| His early youth misspent in maddest whim; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| But as he gazed on Truth, his aching eyes grew dim. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| To horse! to horse! he quits, for ever quits | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A scene of peace, though soothing to his soul: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Again he rouses from his moping fits, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| But seeks not now the harlot and the bowl. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Onward he flies, nor fixed as yet the goal | 10 | /˘········ |
| Where he shall rest him on his pilgrimage; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And o'er him many changing scenes must roll, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Ere toil his thirst for travel can assuage, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Or he shall calm his breast, or learn experience sage. | 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 2, line 9 [With reference to this passage, while yet in MS., an early reader (?Dallas) inquires, "What does this mean?" And a second (?Hobhouse) rejoins, "What does the question mean? It is one of the finest stanzas I ever read."]
- Stanza 3, line 1 [Byron and Hobhouse sailed from Falmouth, July 2, 1809; reached Lisbon on the 6th or 7th; and on the 17th started from Aldea Galbega ("the first stage from Lisbon, which is only accessible by water") on horseback for Seville. "The horses are excellent--we rode seventy miles a day" (see letters of August 6 to F. Hodgson, and August 11, 1809, to Mrs. Byron; Letters, 1898, i. 234, 236).]
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