Canto II XCIII
Yet to the remnants of thy splendour pastShall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng:Long shall the voyager, with th' Ionian blast,Hail the bright clime of battle and of song;Long shall thine annals and immortal tongueFill with thy fame the youth of many a shore:Boast of the aged! lesson of the young!Which sages venerate and bards adore,As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore.
The parted bosom clings to wonted home,If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth;He that is lonely, hither let him roam,And gaze complacent on congenial earth.Greece is no lightsome land of social mirth;But he whom Sadness sootheth may abide,And scarce regret the region of his birth,When wandering slow by Delphi's sacred side,Or gazing o'er the plains where Greek and Persian died.
Let such approach this consecrated land,And pass in peace along the magic waste:But spare its relics--let no busy handDeface the scenes, already how defaced!Not for such purpose were these altars placed.Revere the remnants nations once revered;So may our country's name be undisgraced,So mayst thou prosper where thy youth was reared,By every honest joy of love and life endeared!
Words in this poem 18
- splendour n.
- Great brightness; brilliant luster; brilliancy; as, the splendor ot the sun. B. Jonson. [L. fr. splendere to shine: cf. F. splendeur.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- unwearied a.
- Not wearied; not fatigued or tired; hence, persistent; not tiring or wearying; indefatigable.
- voyager n.
- One who voyages; one who sails or passes by sea or water. [Cf. F. voyager traveling.]
- ionian a.
- Of or pertaining to Ionia or the Ionians; Ionic. [L. Ionius. See Ionic.]
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- annals n.
- A relation of events in chronological order, each event being recorded under the year in which it happened. [L. annalis (sc. liber), and more frequently in the pl. annales (sc. libri), chronicles, fr. annus year. Cf. Annual.]
- venerate v. t.
- To regard with reverential respect; to honor with mingled respect and awe; to reverence; to revere; as, we venerate parents and elders. [L. veneratus, p. p. of venerari to venerate; akin to Venus Venus, Skr. van to like, to wish, and E. winsome. See Winsome.]
- adore v. t.
- To worship with profound reverence; to pay divine honors to; to honor as deity or as divine. [OE. aouren, anouren, adoren, OF. aorer, adorer, F. adorer, fr. L. adorare; ad + orare to speak, pray, os, oris, mouth. In OE. confused with honor, the French pr]
- pallas n.
- Pallas Athene, the Grecian goddess of wisdom, called also Athene, and identified, at a later period, with the Roman Minerva.
- unveil v. t.
- To remove a veil from; to divest of a veil; to uncover; to disclose to view; to reveal; as, she unveiled her face. [1st pref. un- + veil.]
- wonted a.
- Accustomed; customary; usual.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- lightsome a.
- Having light; lighted; not dark or gloomy; bright.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- revere v. t.
- To regard with reverence, or profound respect and affection, mingled with awe or fear; to venerate; to reverence; to honor in estimation. [L. revereri; pref. re- re- + vereri to fear, perh. akin to E. wary: cf. F. révérer.]
- prosper v. t.
- To favor; to render successful. [F. prospérer v. i., or L. prosperare, v. i., or L. prosperare, v. t., fr. prosper or prosperus. See Prosperous.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II XCIII 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 XCIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-xciii.html, id L06536.
Form and metre
Canto II XCIII 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%). 98% 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 pastA · throngB · blastA · songB · tongueB · shoreC · youngB · adoreC · loreC
- 2 ABABBCBCC homeA · hearthB · roamA · earthB · mirthB · abideC · birthB · sideC · diedC
- 3 ABABBCBCC landA · wasteB · handA · defacedB · placedB · reveredC · undisgracedB · rearedC · endearedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Yet to the remnants of thy splendour past | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Shall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng: | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Long shall the voyager, with th' Ionian blast, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘˘· |
| Hail the bright clime of battle and of song; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Long shall thine annals and immortal tongue | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Fill with thy fame the youth of many a shore: | 10 | ·······/·· |
| Boast of the aged! lesson of the young! | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Which sages venerate and bards adore, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore. | 12 | ······˘/·/˘· |
| The parted bosom clings to wonted home, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| He that is lonely, hither let him roam, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And gaze complacent on congenial earth. | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Greece is no lightsome land of social mirth; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But he whom Sadness sootheth may abide, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And scarce regret the region of his birth, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘··· |
| When wandering slow by Delphi's sacred side, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Or gazing o'er the plains where Greek and Persian died. | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
| Let such approach this consecrated land, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘· |
| And pass in peace along the magic waste: | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| But spare its relics--let no busy hand | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Deface the scenes, already how defaced! | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘·˘/ |
| Not for such purpose were these altars placed. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Revere the remnants nations once revered; | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| So may our country's name be undisgraced, | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| So mayst thou prosper where thy youth was reared, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| By every honest joy of love and life endeared! | 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 1, line 3 [The "Ionian blast" is the western wind that brings the voyager across the Ionian Sea.]
- Stanza 2, line 9 [The original MS. closes with this stanza.]
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.