Canto I XXXIV
Where Lusitania and her Sister meet,Deem ye what bounds the rival realms divide?Or e'er the jealous queens of nations greet,Doth Tayo interpose his mighty tide?Or dark sierras rise in craggy pride?Or fence of art, like China's vasty wall?--Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and wide,Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tallRise like the rocks that part Hispania's land from Gaul
But these between a silver streamlet glides,And scarce a name distinguisheth the brook,Though rival kingdoms press its verdant sides.Here leans the idle shepherd on his crook,And vacant on the rippling waves doth look,That peaceful still 'twixt bitterest foemen flow:For proud each peasant as the noblest duke:Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low.
But ere the mingling bounds have far been passed,Dark Guadiana rolls his power alongIn sullen billows, murmuring and vast,So noted ancient roundelays among.Whilome upon his banks did legions throngOf Moor and Knight, in mailed splendour drest;Here ceased the swift their race, here sunk the strong;The Paynim turban and the Christian crestMixed on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts oppressed.
Words in this poem
- 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]
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- streamlet n.
- A small stream; a rivulet; a rill.
- 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]
- duke n.
- A leader; a chief; a prince. [F. duc, fr. L. dux, ducis, leader, commander, fr. ducere to lead; akin to AS. teón to draw; cf. AS. heretoga (here army) an army leader, general, G. herzog duke]
- 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.]
- mailed a.
- Protected by an external coat, or covering, of scales or plates.
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I XXXIV 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 XXXIV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-xxxiv.html, id L06487.
Form and metre
Canto I XXXIV 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 88%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 22% 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 meetA · divideB · greetA · tideB · prideB · wallC · wideB · tallC · gaulC
- 2 ABABBCBCC glidesA · brookB · sidesA · crookB · lookB · flowC · dukeB · knowC · lowC
- 3 ABABBCBCC passedA · alongB · vastA · amongB · throngB · drestC · strongB · crestC · oppressedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where Lusitania and her Sister meet, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Deem ye what bounds the rival realms divide? | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Or e'er the jealous queens of nations greet, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Doth Tayo interpose his mighty tide? | 9 | ···˘/·/˘· |
| Or dark sierras rise in craggy pride? | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Or fence of art, like China's vasty wall?-- | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and wide, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark and tall | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Rise like the rocks that part Hispania's land from Gaul | 12 | ············ |
| But these between a silver streamlet glides, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| And scarce a name distinguisheth the brook, | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Though rival kingdoms press its verdant sides. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Here leans the idle shepherd on his crook, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And vacant on the rippling waves doth look, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| That peaceful still 'twixt bitterest foemen flow: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| For proud each peasant as the noblest duke: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| But ere the mingling bounds have far been passed, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Dark Guadiana rolls his power along | 10 | ······/˘˘/ |
| In sullen billows, murmuring and vast, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘˘·· |
| So noted ancient roundelays among. | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Whilome upon his banks did legions throng | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of Moor and Knight, in mailed splendour drest; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Here ceased the swift their race, here sunk the strong; | 10 | ·········· |
| The Paynim turban and the Christian crest | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Mixed on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts oppressed. | 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 9 The Pyrenees.--[MS.]
- Stanza 2, line 1 [If, as stanza xliii. of this canto (added in 1811) intimates, Byron passed through "Albuera's plain" on his way from Lisbon to Seville, he must have crossed the frontier at a point between Elvas and Badajoz. In that case the "silver streamlet" may be identified as the Caia. Beckford remarks on "the rivulet which separates the two kingdoms" (Italy, etc., 1834, p. 291).]
- Stanza 2, line 8 As I found the Portuguese, so I have characterised them. That they are since improved, at least in courage, is evident.
[The following "Note on Spain and Portugal," part of the original draft of Note 3 (p. 86), was suppressed at the instance of Dallas: "We have heard wonders of the Portuguese lately, and their gallantry. Pray Heaven it continue; yet 'would it were bed-time, Hal, and all were well!' They must fight a great many hours, by 'Shrewsbury clock,' before the number of their slain equals that of our countrymen butchered by these kind creatures, now metamorphosed into 'Cacadores,' and what not. I merely state a fact, not confined to Portugal; for in Sicily and Malta we are knocked on the head at a handsome average nightly, and not a Sicilian or Maltese is ever punished! The neglect of protection is disgraceful to our government and governors; for the murders are as notorious as the moon that shines upon them, and the apathy that overlooks them. The Portuguese, it is to be hoped, are complimented with the 'Forlorn Hope,'--if the cowards are become brave (like the rest of their kind, in a corner), pray let them display it. But there is a subscription for these [Greek: thrasy/deiloi] (they need not be ashamed of the epithet once applied to the Spartans); and all the charitable patronymics, from ostentatious A. to diffident Z., and L1 1s. 0d. from 'An Admirer of Valour,' are in requisition for the lists at Lloyd's, and the honour of British benevolence. Well! we have fought, and subscribed, and bestowed peerages, and buried the killed by our friends and foes; and, lo! all this is to be done over again! Like Lien Chi (in Goldsmith's Citizen of the World), as we 'grow older, we grow never the better.' It would be pleasant to learn who will subscribe for us, in or about the year 1815, and what nation will send fifty thousand men, first to be decimated in the capital, and then decimated again (in the Irish fashion, nine out of ten), in the 'bed of honour;' which, as Serjeant Kite says [in Farquhar's Recruiting Officer, act i. sc. 1], is considerably larger and more commodious than 'the bed of Ware.' Then they must have a poet to write the 'Vision of Don Perceval,' and generously bestow the profits of the well and widely printed quarto, to rebuild the 'Backwynd' and the 'Canongate,' or furnish new kilts for the half-roasted Highlanders. Lord Wellington, however, has enacted marvels; and so did his Oriental brother, whom I s … - Stanza 3, line 9 [Compare Virgil, AEneid, i. 100--
"Ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis Scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volvit."]
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