Canto I XXXVII
Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land!Where is that standard which Pelagio bore,When Cava's traitor-sire first called the bandThat dyed thy mountain-streams with Gothic gore?Where are those bloody banners which of yoreWaved o'er thy sons, victorious to the gale,And drove at last the spoilers to their shore?Red gleamed the cross, and waned the crescent pale,While Afric's echoes thrilled with Moorish matrons' wail.
Teems not each ditty with the glorious tale?Ah! such, alas, the hero's amplest fate!When granite moulders and when records fail,A peasant's plaint prolongs his dubious date.Pride! bend thine eye from heaven to thine estate,See how the mighty shrink into a song!Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve thee great?Or must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue,When Flattery sleeps with thee, and History does thee wrong?
Awake, ye sons of Spain! awake! advanceLo! Chivalry, your ancient goddess, cries,But wields not, as of old, her thirsty lance,Nor shakes her crimson plumage in the skies:Now on the smoke of blazing bolts she flies,And speaks in thunder through yon engine's roar!In every peal she calls--'Awake! arise!'Say, is her voice more feeble than of yore,When her war-song was heard on Andalusia's shore?
Words in this poem
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- ditty n.
- A saying or utterance; especially, one that is short and frequently repeated; a theme. [OE. dite, OF. ditié, fr. L. dictatum, p. p. neut. of dictare to say often, dictate, compose. See Dictate, v. t.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- plaint n.
- Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament. Chaucer."The Psalmist's mournful plaint." [OE. plainte, pleynte, F. plainte, fr. L. plangere, planctum (plancta, fem. p.p.), to beat, beat the breast, lament. Cf. Complain, Plague, Plangent.]
- dubious a.
- Doubtful or not settled in opinion; being in doubt; wavering or fluctuating; undetermined. [L. dubius, dubiosus, fr. duo two. See Two, and cf. Doubt.]
- peal v. i.
- To appeal. Spencer.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto I XXXVII 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 XXXVII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-i-xxxvii.html, id L06488.
Form and metre
Canto I XXXVII 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 89%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 11% 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 landA · boreB · bandA · goreB · yoreB · galeC · shoreB · paleC · wailC
- 2 ABABBCBCC taleA · fateB · failA · dateB · estateB · songC · greatB · tongueC · wrongC
- 3 ABABBCBCC advanceA · criesB · lanceA · skiesB · fliesB · roarC · ariseB · yoreC · shoreC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic land! | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| Where is that standard which Pelagio bore, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When Cava's traitor-sire first called the band | 10 | ·/˘/˘/···· |
| That dyed thy mountain-streams with Gothic gore? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where are those bloody banners which of yore | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Waved o'er thy sons, victorious to the gale, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And drove at last the spoilers to their shore? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Red gleamed the cross, and waned the crescent pale, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| While Afric's echoes thrilled with Moorish matrons' wail. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Teems not each ditty with the glorious tale? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Ah! such, alas, the hero's amplest fate! | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| When granite moulders and when records fail, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| A peasant's plaint prolongs his dubious date. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Pride! bend thine eye from heaven to thine estate, | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| See how the mighty shrink into a song! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve thee great? | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Or must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| When Flattery sleeps with thee, and History does thee wrong? | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| Awake, ye sons of Spain! awake! advance | 10 | ˘/····˘/˘/ |
| Lo! Chivalry, your ancient goddess, cries, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| But wields not, as of old, her thirsty lance, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor shakes her crimson plumage in the skies: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Now on the smoke of blazing bolts she flies, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And speaks in thunder through yon engine's roar! | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| In every peal she calls--'Awake! arise!' | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| Say, is her voice more feeble than of yore, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| When her war-song was heard on Andalusia's shore? | 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 2 [The standard, a cross made of Asturian oak (La Cruz de la Victoria), which was said to have fallen from heaven before Pelayo gained the victory over the Moors at Cangas, in A.D. 718, is preserved at Oviedo. Compare Southey's Roderick, XXV.: Poetical Works, 1838, ix. 241, and note, pp. 370, 371.]
- Stanza 1, line 3 Count Julian's daughter, the Helen of Spain. Pelagius preserved his independence in the fastnesses of the Asturias, and the descendants of his followers, after some centuries, completed their struggle by the conquest of Grenada.
[Roderick the Goth violated Florinda, or Caba, or Cava, daughter of Count Julian, one of his principal lieutenants. In revenge for this outrage, Julian allied himself with Musca, the Caliph's lieutenant in Africa, and countenanced the invasion of Spain by a body of Saracens and Africans commanded by Tarik, from whom Jebel Tarik, Tarik's Rock, that is, Gibraltar, is said to have been named. The issue was the defeat and death of Roderick and the Moorish occupation of Spain. A Spaniard, according to Cervantes, may call his dog, but not his daughter, Florinda. (See Vision of Don Roderick, by Sir W. Scott, stanza iv. note 5.)] - Stanza 1, line 7 [The Moors were finally expelled from Granada in 1492, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.]
- Stanza 2, line 1 [The reference is to the Romanceros and Caballerias of the sixteenth century.]
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