Canto II LX
The wild Albanian kirtled to his knee,With shawl-girt head and ornamented gun,And gold-embroidered garments, fair to see:The crimson-scarfed men of Macedon;The Delhi with his cap of terror on,And crooked glaive; the lively, supple Greek;And swarthy Nubia's mutilated son;The bearded Turk, that rarely deigns to speak,Master of all around, too potent to be meek,
Are mixed conspicuous: some recline in groups,Scanning the motley scene that varies round;There some grave Moslem to devotion stoops,And some that smoke, and some that play are found;Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground;Half-whispering there the Greek is heard to prate;Hark! from the mosque the nightly solemn sound,The muezzin's call doth shake the minaret,'There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!'
Just at this season Ramazani's fastThrough the long day its penance did maintain.But when the lingering twilight hour was past,Revel and feast assumed the rule again:Now all was bustle, and the menial trainPrepared and spread the plenteous board within;The vacant gallery now seemed made in vain,But from the chambers came the mingling din,As page and slave anon were passing out and in.
Words in this poem
- albanian a.
- Of or pertaining to Albania, a province of Turkey.
- kirtled a.
- Wearing a kirtle.
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- glaive n.
- A weapon formerly used, consisting of a large blade fixed on the end of a pole, whose edge was on the outside curve; also, a light lance with a long sharp-pointed head. Wilhelm. [F. glaive, L. gladius; prob. akin to E. claymore. Cf. Gladiator.]
- turk n.
- A member of any of numerous Tartar tribes of Central Asia, etc.; esp., one of the dominant race in Turkey. [Per. Turk; probably of Tartar origin: cf. F. Turc.]
- nightly a.
- Of or pertaining to the night, or to every night; happening or done by night, or every night; as, nightly shades; he kept nightly vigils.
- minaret n.
- A slender, lofty tower attached to a mosque and surrounded by one or more projecting balconies, from which the summon to prayer is cried by the muezzin. [Sp. minarete, Ar. manarat lamp, lantern, lighthouse, turret, fr. nar to shine.]
- anon adv.
- Straightway; at once. [OE. anoon, anon, anan, lit., in one (moment), fr. AS. on in + an one. See On and One.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II LX 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 II LX, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-lx.html, id L06525.
Form and metre
Canto II LX 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 86%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 7% 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 kneeA · gunB · seeA · macedonB · onB · greekC · sonB · speakC · meekC
- 2 ABABBCBCC groupsA · roundB · stoopsA · foundB · groundB · prateC · soundB · minaretC · greatC
- 3 ABABBCBCC fastA · maintainB · pastA · againB · trainB · withinC · vainB · dinC · inC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The wild Albanian kirtled to his knee, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| With shawl-girt head and ornamented gun, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘· |
| And gold-embroidered garments, fair to see: | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| The crimson-scarfed men of Macedon; | 10 | ·/˘·˘····· |
| The Delhi with his cap of terror on, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And crooked glaive; the lively, supple Greek; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And swarthy Nubia's mutilated son; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘· |
| The bearded Turk, that rarely deigns to speak, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Master of all around, too potent to be meek, | 12 | /˘·····/˘··· |
| Are mixed conspicuous: some recline in groups, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Scanning the motley scene that varies round; | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| There some grave Moslem to devotion stoops, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| And some that smoke, and some that play are found; | 10 | ·········· |
| Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Half-whispering there the Greek is heard to prate; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Hark! from the mosque the nightly solemn sound, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The muezzin's call doth shake the minaret, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| 'There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!' | 12 | ············ |
| Just at this season Ramazani's fast | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Through the long day its penance did maintain. | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| But when the lingering twilight hour was past, | 10 | ···/˘/·/·· |
| Revel and feast assumed the rule again: | 10 | /˘··˘/··˘/ |
| Now all was bustle, and the menial train | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Prepared and spread the plenteous board within; | 11 | ˘/···/˘˘··· |
| The vacant gallery now seemed made in vain, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| But from the chambers came the mingling din, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| As page and slave anon were passing out and in. | 12 | ····˘/·/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 3
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 1 ["We were disturbed during the night by the perpetual carousal which seemed to be kept up in the gallery, and by the drum, and the voice of the 'muezzinn,' or chanter, calling the Turks to prayers from the minaret of the mosck attached to the palace. This chanter was a boy, and he sang out his hymn is a sort of loud melancholy recitative. He was a long time repeating the Eraun. The first exclamation was repeated four times, the remaining words twice; and the long and piercing note in which he concluded his confession of faith, by twice crying out the word 'hou!' ['At solemn sound of "Alla Hu!"' Giaour, i. 734] still rings in my ears."--Hobhouse's Travels in Albania, i. 95. D'Ohsonn gives the Eraun at full length: "Most high God! [four times repeated]. I acknowledge that there is no other God except God! I acknowledge that there is no other God except God! I acknowledge that Mohammed is the prophet of God! Come to prayer! Come to prayer! Come to the temple of salvation! Come to the temple of salvation! Great God! great God! There is no God except God!"--Oriental Antiquities (Philadelphia, 1788), p. 341.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 ["The Ramazan, or Turkish Lent, which, as it occurs in each of the thirteen months in succession, fell this year in October ... Although during this month the strictest abstinence, even from tobacco and coffee, is observed in the daytime, yet with the setting of the sun the feasting commences."--Travels in Albania, i. 66. "The Ramadan or Rhamazan is the ninth month of the Mohammedan year. As the Mohammedans reckon by lunar time, it begins each year eleven days earlier than in the preceding year, so that in thirty-three years it occurs successively in all the seasons."--Imp. Dictionary.]
- Stanza 3, line 9 [The feast was spread within the courtyard, "in the part farthest from the dwelling," and when the revelry began the "immense large gallery" or corridor, which ran along the front of the palace and was open on one side to the court, was deserted. "Opening into the gallery were the doors of several apartments," and as the servants passed in and out, the travellers standing in the courtyard could hear the sound of voices.--Travels in Albania, i. 93.]
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