Canto II VI
Bound to the earth, he lifts his eyes to heaven--Is't not enough, unhappy thing, to knowThou art? Is this a boon so kindly given,That being, thou wouldst be again, and go,Thou know'st not, reck'st not to what region, soOn earth no more, but mingled with the skies!Still wilt thou dream on future joy and woe?Regard and weigh yon dust before it flies:That little urn saith more than thousand homilies.
Or burst the vanished hero's lofty mound;Far on the solitary shore he sleeps;He fell, and falling nations mourned around;But now not one of saddening thousands weeps,Nor warlike worshipper his vigil keepsWhere demi-gods appeared, as records tell.Remove yon skull from out the scattered heaps:Is that a temple where a God may dwell?Why, e'en the worm at last disdains her shattered cell!
Look on its broken arch, its ruined wall,Its chambers desolate, and portals foul:Yes, this was once Ambition's airy hall,The dome of Thought, the Palace of the Soul.Behold through each lack-lustre, eyeless hole,The gay recess of Wisdom and of Wit,And Passion's host, that never brooked control:Can all saint, sage, or sophist ever writ,People this lonely tower, this tenement refit?
Words in this poem
- boon n.
- A prayer or petition. [OE. bone, boin, a petition, fr. Icel. b; akin to Sw. & Dan. b, AS. b, and perh. to E. ban; but influenced by F. bon good, fr. L. bonus. Ban, Bounty.]
- saith
- 3d pers. sing. pres. of Say.
- vigil n.
- Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- eyeless a.
- Without eyes; blind.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II VI 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 VI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-vi.html, id L06507.
Form and metre
Canto II VI 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 90%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 heavenA · knowB · givenA · goB · soB · skiesC · woeB · fliesC · homiliesC
- 2 ABABBCBCC moundA · sleepsB · aroundA · weepsB · keepsB · tellC · heapsB · dwellC · cellC
- 3 ABABBCBCC wallA · foulB · hallA · soulB · holeB · witC · controlB · writC · refitC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Bound to the earth, he lifts his eyes to heaven-- | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Is't not enough, unhappy thing, to know | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Thou art? Is this a boon so kindly given, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| That being, thou wouldst be again, and go, | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| Thou know'st not, reck'st not to what region, so | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| On earth no more, but mingled with the skies! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Still wilt thou dream on future joy and woe? | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Regard and weigh yon dust before it flies: | 10 | ˘/········ |
| That little urn saith more than thousand homilies. | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Or burst the vanished hero's lofty mound; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Far on the solitary shore he sleeps; | 10 | ···/˘·˘··· |
| He fell, and falling nations mourned around; | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| But now not one of saddening thousands weeps, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Nor warlike worshipper his vigil keeps | 10 | ·/·····/˘· |
| Where demi-gods appeared, as records tell. | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Remove yon skull from out the scattered heaps: | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Is that a temple where a God may dwell? | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Why, e'en the worm at last disdains her shattered cell! | 12 | ······˘/·/˘· |
| Look on its broken arch, its ruined wall, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Its chambers desolate, and portals foul: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Yes, this was once Ambition's airy hall, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| The dome of Thought, the Palace of the Soul. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Behold through each lack-lustre, eyeless hole, | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| The gay recess of Wisdom and of Wit, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| And Passion's host, that never brooked control: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Can all saint, sage, or sophist ever writ, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| People this lonely tower, this tenement refit? | 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 5 [Compare Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act iii, sc. 1, lines 5-7--
"Reason thus with life: If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep."] - Stanza 2, line 2 It was not always the custom of the Greeks to burn their dead; the greater Ajax, in particular, was interred entire. Almost all the chiefs became gods after their decease; and he was indeed neglected, who had not annual games near his tomb, or festivals in honour of his memory by his countrymen, as Achilles, Brasidas, etc., and at last even Antinous, whose death was as heroic as his life was infamous.
- Stanza 2, line 6 [The demigods Erechtheus and Theseus "appeared" at Marathon, and fought side by side with Miltiades (Grote's History of Greece, iv. 284).]
- Stanza 3, line 6 [Compare Shakespeare, Hamlet, act v. sc. 1, passim.]
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.