Canto II LXXXI
And whose more rife with merriment than thine,O Stamboul! once the empress of their reign?Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrineAnd Greece her very altars eyes in vain:(Alas! her woes will still pervade my strain!)Gay were her minstrels once, for free her throng,All felt the common joy they now must feign;Nor oft I've seen such sight, nor heard such song,As wooed the eye, and thrilled the Bosphorus along.
Loud was the lightsome tumult on the shore;Oft Music changed, but never ceased her tone,And timely echoed back the measured oar,And rippling waters made a pleasant moan:The Queen of tides on high consenting shone;And when a transient breeze swept o'er the wave,'Twas as if, darting from her heavenly throne,A brighter glance her form reflected gave,Till sparkling billows seemed to light the banks they lave.
Glanced many a light caique along the foam,Danced on the shore the daughters of the land,No thought had man or maid of rest or home,While many a languid eye and thrilling handExchanged the look few bosoms may withstand,Or gently pressed, returned the pressure still:Oh Love! young Love! bound in thy rosy band,Let sage or cynic prattle as he will,These hours, and only these, redeemed Life's years of ill!
Words in this poem
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
- pervade v. t.
- To pass or flow through, as an aperture, pore, or interstice; to permeate. [L. pervadere, pervasum; per + vadere to go, to walk. See Per-, and Wade.]
- lightsome a.
- Having light; lighted; not dark or gloomy; bright.
- lave v. t.
- To lade, dip, or pour out. [OE. laven. See Lavish.]
- thrilling a.
- Causing a thrill; causing tremulous excitement; deeply moving; as, a thrilling romance.
- cynic a.
- Having the qualities of a surly dog; snarling; captious; currish. [L. cynicus of the sect of Cynics, fr. Gr. Hound.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II LXXXI 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 LXXXI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-lxxxi.html, id L06532.
Form and metre
Canto II LXXXI 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%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 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 thineA · reignB · shrineA · vainB · strainB · throngC · feignB · songC · alongC
- 2 ABABBCBCC shoreA · toneB · oarA · moanB · shoneB · waveC · throneB · gaveC · laveC
- 3 ABABBCBCC foamA · landB · homeA · handB · withstandB · stillC · bandB · willC · illC
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 whose more rife with merriment than thine, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| O Stamboul! once the empress of their reign? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrine | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| And Greece her very altars eyes in vain: | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| (Alas! her woes will still pervade my strain!) | 10 | ˘/····˘/·· |
| Gay were her minstrels once, for free her throng, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| All felt the common joy they now must feign; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor oft I've seen such sight, nor heard such song, | 10 | ·········· |
| As wooed the eye, and thrilled the Bosphorus along. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| Loud was the lightsome tumult on the shore; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Oft Music changed, but never ceased her tone, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And timely echoed back the measured oar, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And rippling waters made a pleasant moan: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The Queen of tides on high consenting shone; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And when a transient breeze swept o'er the wave, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| 'Twas as if, darting from her heavenly throne, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A brighter glance her form reflected gave, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Till sparkling billows seemed to light the banks they lave. | 12 | ·/˘/˘······· |
| Glanced many a light caique along the foam, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| Danced on the shore the daughters of the land, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| No thought had man or maid of rest or home, | 10 | ·········· |
| While many a languid eye and thrilling hand | 10 | ·/·/˘··/˘· |
| Exchanged the look few bosoms may withstand, | 10 | ˘/···/˘·˘/ |
| Or gently pressed, returned the pressure still: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Oh Love! young Love! bound in thy rosy band, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Let sage or cynic prattle as he will, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| These hours, and only these, redeemed Life's years of ill! | 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 1 [These al-fresco festivities must, it is presumed, have taken place on the two days out of the seven when you "might not 'damn the climate' and complain of the spleen." Hobhouse records excursions to the Valley of Sweet Waters; to Belgrade, where "the French minister gave a sort of fete-champetre," when "the carousal lasted four days," and when "night after night is kept awake by the pipes, tabors, and fiddles of these moonlight dances;" and to the grove of Fanar-Baktchesi.--Travels in Albania, ii. 242-258.]
- Stanza 3, line 9 ["There's nothing like young Love, No! No! There's nothing like young love at last."]
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.