Canto II LXXVIII
Hereditary bondsmen! know ye notWho would be free themselves must strike the blow?By their right arms the conquest must be wrought?Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? No!True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,But not for you will Freedom's altars flame.Shades of the Helots! triumph o'er your foe:Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same;Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thy years of shame.
The city won for Allah from the Giaour,The Giaour from Othman's race again may wrest;And the Serai's impenetrable towerReceive the fiery Frank, her former guest;Or Wahab's rebel brood, who dared divestThe Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil,May wind their path of blood along the West;But ne'er will Freedom seek this fated soil,But slave succeed to slave through years of endless toil.
Yet mark their mirth--ere lenten days begin,That penance which their holy rites prepareTo shrive from man his weight of mortal sin,By daily abstinence and nightly prayer;But ere his sackcloth garb Repentance wear,Some days of joyaunce are decreed to all,To take of pleasaunce each his secret share,In motley robe to dance at masking ball,And join the mimic train of merry Carnival.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- allah n.
- The name of the Supreme Being, in use among the Arabs and the Mohammedans generally. [contr. fr. the article al the + ilah God.]
- giaour n.
- An infidel; -- a term applied by Turks to disbelievers in the Mohammedan religion, especially Christrians. [Turk. giaur an infidel, Per. gawr, another form of ghebr fire worshiper. Cf. Kaffir, Gheber .]
- rebel a.
- Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious; as, rebel troops. [F. rebelle, fr. L. rebellis. See Rebel, v. t.]
- lenten n.
- Lent. Piers Plowman.
- shrive v. t.
- To hear or receive the confession of; to administer confession and absolution to; -- said of a priest as the agent. [OE. shriven, schriven, AS. scrivan to shrive, to impose penance or punishment; akin to OFries. skriva to impose punishment; cf. OS. biskriban to be troubled. Cf]
- 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.
- sackcloth n.
- Linen or cotton cloth such a sacks are made of; coarse cloth; anciently, a cloth or garment worn in mourning, distress, mortification, or penitence.
- garb n.
- External appearance, as expressive of the feelings or character; looks; fashion or manner, as of speech. [OF. garbe looks, countenance, grace, ornament, fr. OHG. garawi, garwi, ornament, dress. akin to E. gear. See Gear, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II LXXVIII 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 LXXVIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-lxxviii.html, id L06531.
Form and metre
Canto II LXXVIII 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 93%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end 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 notA · blowB · wroughtA · noB · lowB · flameC · foeB · sameC · shameC
- 2 ABABBCBCC giaourA · wrestB · towerA · guestB · divestB · spoilC · westB · soilC · toilC
- 3 ABABBCBCC beginA · prepareB · sinA · prayerB · wearB · allC · shareB · ballC · carnivalC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not | 10 | ˘/˘·˘····· |
| Who would be free themselves must strike the blow? | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| By their right arms the conquest must be wrought? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Will Gaul or Muscovite redress ye? No! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| True, they may lay your proud despoilers low, | 10 | ·········· |
| But not for you will Freedom's altars flame. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Shades of the Helots! triumph o'er your foe: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same; | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thy years of shame. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| The city won for Allah from the Giaour, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The Giaour from Othman's race again may wrest; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| And the Serai's impenetrable tower | 11 | ····˘/˘˘˘/˘ |
| Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest; | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| Or Wahab's rebel brood, who dared divest | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| The Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| May wind their path of blood along the West; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| But ne'er will Freedom seek this fated soil, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But slave succeed to slave through years of endless toil. | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
| Yet mark their mirth--ere lenten days begin, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That penance which their holy rites prepare | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| To shrive from man his weight of mortal sin, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| By daily abstinence and nightly prayer; | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| But ere his sackcloth garb Repentance wear, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Some days of joyaunce are decreed to all, | 9 | ·····˘/·· |
| To take of pleasaunce each his secret share, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| In motley robe to dance at masking ball, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And join the mimic train of merry Carnival. | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
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 3 [Compare The Age of Bronze, vi. lines 39-46.]
- Stanza 2, line 4 When taken by the Latins, and retained for several years. See Gibbon. [From A.D. 1204 to 1261.]
- Stanza 2, line 5 [The Wahabees, who took their name from the Arab sheik Mohammed ben Abd-el-Wahab, arose in the province of Nedj, in Central Arabia, about 1760. Half-socialists, half-puritans, they insisted on fulfilling to the letter the precepts of the Koran. In 1803-4 they attacked and ravaged Mecca and Medinah, and in 1808 they invaded Syria and took Damascus. During Byron's residence in the East they were at the height of their power, and seemed to threaten the very existence of the Turkish empire.]
- Stanza 2, line 6 Mecca and Medina were taken some time ago by the Wahabees, a sect yearly increasing. [Vide supra, p. 151.]
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