Canto II XC
Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted, holy ground;No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould,But one vast realm of wonder spreads around,And all the Muse's tales seem truly told,Till the sense aches with gazing to beholdThe scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon:Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold,Defies the power which crushed thy temples gone:Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon.
The sun, the soil, but not the slave, the same;Unchanged in all except its foreign lord--Preserves alike its bounds and boundless fame;The battle-field, where Persia's victim hordeFirst bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword,As on the morn to distant Glory dear,When Marathon became a magic word;Which uttered, to the hearer's eye appearThe camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's career.
The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow;The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear;Mountains above, Earth's, Ocean's plain below;Death in the front, Destruction in the rear!Such was the scene--what now remaineth here?What sacred trophy marks the hallowed ground,Recording Freedom's smile and Asia's tear?The rifled urn, the violated mound,The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around.
Words in this poem
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- mould n.
- Crumbling, soft, friable earth; esp., earth containing the remains or constituents of organic matter, and suited to the growth of plants; soil. [OE. molde, AS. molde; akin to D. mul, G. mull, mulm, OHG. molt, molta, Icel. mold, Dan. muld, Sw. mull, Goth. mulda, and E. meal flour. See Meal, and cf. Mole a]
- wold n.
- A wood; a forest. [OE. wold, wald, AS. weald, wald, a wood, forest; akin to OFries. & OS. wald, D. woud, G. wald, Icel. völlr, a field, and probably to Gr. va a garden, inclosure.]
- horde n.
- A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude. Thomson. [F. horde (cf. G. horde), fr. Turk. ord, ordi, camp; of Tartar origin.]
- brunt n.
- The heat, or utmost violence, of an onset; the strength or greatest fury of any contention; as, the brunt of a battle. [OE. brunt, bront, fr. Icel. bruna to rush; cf. Icel. brenna to burn. Cf. Burn, v. t.]
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- career n.
- A race course: the ground run over. [F. carrière race course, high road, street, fr. L. carrus wagon. See Car.]
- trophy n.
- A sign or memorial of a victory raised on the field of battle, or, in case of a naval victory, on the nearest land. Sometimes trophies were erected in the chief city of the conquered people. [F. trophée (cf. It. & Sp. trofeo), L. tropaeum, trophaeum, Gr. Trope.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II XC 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 XC, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-xc.html, id L06535.
Form and metre
Canto II XC 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 91%). 94% 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 groundA · mouldB · aroundA · toldB · beholdB · uponC · woldB · goneC · marathonC
- 2 ABABBCBCC sameA · lordB · fameA · hordeB · swordB · dearC · wordB · appearC · careerC
- 3 ABABBCBCC bowA · spearB · belowA · rearB · hereB · groundC · tearB · moundC · aroundC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted, holy ground; | 11 | ˘˘/···/˘/˘· |
| No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But one vast realm of wonder spreads around, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And all the Muse's tales seem truly told, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Till the sense aches with gazing to behold | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon: | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Defies the power which crushed thy temples gone: | 10 | ˘/·/···/˘· |
| Age shakes Athena's tower, but spares gray Marathon. | 12 | ··˘/˘/···/˘· |
| The sun, the soil, but not the slave, the same; | 10 | ·········· |
| Unchanged in all except its foreign lord-- | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| Preserves alike its bounds and boundless fame; | 10 | ˘/˘/···/˘· |
| The battle-field, where Persia's victim horde | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword, | 10 | ·········· |
| As on the morn to distant Glory dear, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| When Marathon became a magic word; | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Which uttered, to the hearer's eye appear | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| The camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's career. | 11 | ·······/˘˘/ |
| The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow; | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear; | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Mountains above, Earth's, Ocean's plain below; | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Death in the front, Destruction in the rear! | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Such was the scene--what now remaineth here? | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| What sacred trophy marks the hallowed ground, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Recording Freedom's smile and Asia's tear? | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| The rifled urn, the violated mound, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘· |
| The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around. | 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 9 [Byron and Hobhouse, after visiting Colonna, slept at Keratea, and proceeded to Marathon on January 25, returning to Athens on the following day.]
- Stanza 2, line 7 "Siste Viator--heroa calcas!" was the epitaph on the famous Count Merci;--what then must be our feelings when standing on the tumulus of the two hundred (Greeks) who fell on Marathon? The principal barrow has recently been opened by Fauvel: few or no relics, as vases, etc. were found by the excavator. The plain of Marathon was offered to me for sale at the sum of sixteen thousand piastres, about nine hundred pounds! Alas!--"Expende--quot libras in duce summo--invenies!"--was the dust of Miltiades worth no more? It could scarcely have fetched less if sold by weight.
- Stanza 3, line 1 ["The plain of Marathon is enclosed on three sides by the rocky arms of Parnes and Pentelicus, while the fourth is bounded by the sea." After the first rush, when the victorious wings, where the files were deep, had drawn together and extricated the shallower and weaker centre, which had been repulsed by the Persians and the Sakae, "the pursuit became general, and the Persians were chased to their ships, ranged in line along the shore. Some of them became involved in the impassable marsh, and there perished." (See Childe Harold, edited by H. F. Tozer, 1885, p. 253; Grote's History of Greece, iv. 276. See, too, Travels in Albania, i. 378-384.)]
- Stanza 3, line 8 [See note to Canto II. stanzas i.-xv., pp. 99, 100.]
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.