Canto II XV
What! shall it e'er be said by British tongueAlbion was happy in Athena's tears?Though in thy name the slaves her bosom wrung,Tell not the deed to blushing Europe's ears;The ocean queen, the free Britannia, bearsThe last poor plunder from a bleeding land:Yes, she, whose generous aid her name endears,Tore down those remnants with a harpy's hand.Which envious eld forbore, and tyrants left to stand.
Where was thine aegis, Pallas, that appalledStern Alaric and Havoc on their way?Where Peleus' son? whom Hell in vain enthralled,His shade from Hades upon that dread dayBursting to light in terrible array!What! could not Pluto spare the chief once more,To scare a second robber from his prey?Idly he wandered on the Stygian shore,Nor now preserved the walls he loved to shield before.
Cold is the heart, fair Greece, that looks on thee,Nor feels as lovers o'er the dust they loved;Dull is the eye that will not weep to seeThy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removedBy British hands, which it had best behovedTo guard those relics ne'er to be restored.Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,And once again thy hapless bosom gored,And snatched thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- albion n.
- An ancient name of England, still retained in poetry. [Prob. from the same root as Gael. alp a height or hill. "It may have been bestowed on the land lying behind the white cliffs visible from the coast of Gaul. Alb]
- britannia n.
- A white-metal alloy of tin, antimony, bismuth, copper, etc. It somewhat resembles silver, and isused for table ware. Called also Britannia metal. [From L. Britannia Great Britain.]
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- tore n.
- The dead grass that remains on mowing land in winter and spring. Mortimer. [Probably from the root of tear; cf. W. tór a break, cut, tóri to break, cut.]
- envious a.
- Malignant; mischievous; spiteful. [OF. envios, F. envieux, fr. L. invidiosus, fr. invidia envy. See Envy, and cf. Invidious.]
- pallas n.
- Pallas Athene, the Grecian goddess of wisdom, called also Athene, and identified, at a later period, with the Roman Minerva.
- havoc n.
- Wide and general destruction; devastation; waste. [W. hafog devastation, havoc; or, if this be itself fr. E. havoc, cf. OE. havot, or AS. hafoc hawk, which is a cruel or rapacious bird, or F. hai, voux! a cry to]
- scare v. t.
- To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm. [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer ]
- stygian a.
- Of or pertaining to the river Styx; hence, hellish; infernal.
- curst a.
- Froward; malignant; mischievous; malicious; snarling. [SeeCurse.]
- isle v. t.
- To cause to become an island, or like an island; to surround or encompass; to island.
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II XV 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 XV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-xv.html, id L06510.
Form and metre
Canto II XV 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 87%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 26% 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 tongueA · tearsB · wrungA · earsB · bearsB · landC · endearsB · handC · standC
- 2 ABABBCBCC appalledA · wayB · enthralledA · dayB · arrayB · moreC · preyB · shoreC · beforeC
- 3 ABABBCBCC theeA · lovedB · seeA · removedB · behovedB · restoredC · rovedB · goredC · abhorredC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Albion was happy in Athena's tears? | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Though in thy name the slaves her bosom wrung, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Tell not the deed to blushing Europe's ears; | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| The ocean queen, the free Britannia, bears | 10 | ·/···˘/˘˘· |
| The last poor plunder from a bleeding land: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yes, she, whose generous aid her name endears, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Tore down those remnants with a harpy's hand. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which envious eld forbore, and tyrants left to stand. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘··· |
| Where was thine aegis, Pallas, that appalled | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Stern Alaric and Havoc on their way? | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Where Peleus' son? whom Hell in vain enthralled, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| His shade from Hades upon that dread day | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Bursting to light in terrible array! | 10 | /˘···/˘˘˘/ |
| What! could not Pluto spare the chief once more, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| To scare a second robber from his prey? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Idly he wandered on the Stygian shore, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘· |
| Nor now preserved the walls he loved to shield before. | 12 | ··˘/········ |
| Cold is the heart, fair Greece, that looks on thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| Nor feels as lovers o'er the dust they loved; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Dull is the eye that will not weep to see | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| By British hands, which it had best behoved | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To guard those relics ne'er to be restored. | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved, | 10 | ···/······ |
| And once again thy hapless bosom gored, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| And snatched thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred! | 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 According to Zosimus, Minerva and Achilles frightened Alaric from the Acropolis: but others relate that the Gothic king was nearly as mischievous as the Scottish peer.--See Chandler.
[Zosimus, Historiae, lib. v. cap. 6, Corp. Scr. Byz., 1837, p. 253. As a matter of fact, Alaric, King of the Visigoths, occupied Athens in A.D. 395 without resistance, and carried off the movable treasures of the city, though he did not destroy buildings or works of art.--Note by Rev. E. C. Owen, Childe Harold, 1898, p. 162.] - Stanza 3, line 9 [The Athenians believed, or feigned to believe, that the marbles themselves shrieked out in shame and agony at their removal from their ancient shrines.]
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