Canto II XXXVI
Not much he kens, I ween, of woman's breast,Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs;What careth she for hearts when once possessed?Do proper homage to thine idol's eyes,But not too humbly, or she will despiseThee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes;Disguise e'en tenderness, if thou art wise;Brisk Confidence still best with woman copes;Pique her and soothe in turn, soon Passion crowns thy hopes.
'Tis an old lesson: Time approves it true,And those who know it best deplore it most;When all is won that all desire to woo,The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost:Youth wasted, minds degraded, honour lost,These are thy fruits, successful Passion! these!If, kindly cruel, early hope is crossed,Still to the last it rankles, a disease,Not to be cured when Love itself forgets to please.
Away! nor let me loiter in my song,For we have many a mountain path to tread,And many a varied shore to sail along,By pensive Sadness, not by Fiction, led--Climes, fair withal as ever mortal headImagined in its little schemes of thought;Or e'er in new Utopias were read:To teach man what he might be, or he ought;If that corrupted thing could ever such be taught.
Words in this poem
- ween v. i.
- To think; to imagine; to fancy. [OE. wenen, AS. w, fr. w hope, expectation, opinion; akin to D. waan, OFries. w, OS. & OHG. wan, G. wahn delusion, Icel. van hope, expectation, Goth. w, and D. w]
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- pique n.
- A cotton fabric, figured in the loom, -- used as a dress goods for women and children, and for vestings, etc. [F., p.p. of piquer to prick.]
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- deplore v. t.
- To feel or to express deep and poignant grief for; to bewail; to lament; to mourn; to sorrow over. [L. deplorare; de- + plorare to cry out, wail, lament; prob. akin to pluere to rain, and to E. flow: cf. F. déplorer. Cf. Flow.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
- withal adv.
- With this; with that. [With + all.]
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto II XXXVI 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 XXXVI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-ii-xxxvi.html, id L06517.
Form and metre
Canto II XXXVI 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%). 98% 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 breastA · sighsB · possessedA · eyesB · despiseB · tropesC · wiseB · copesC · hopesC
- 2 ABABBCBCC trueA · mostB · wooA · costB · lostB · theseC · crossedB · diseaseC · pleaseC
- 3 ABABBCBCC songA · treadB · alongA · ledB · headB · thoughtC · readB · oughtC · taughtC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not much he kens, I ween, of woman's breast, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What careth she for hearts when once possessed? | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Do proper homage to thine idol's eyes, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| But not too humbly, or she will despise | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Thee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Disguise e'en tenderness, if thou art wise; | 10 | ˘/·/˘˘···· |
| Brisk Confidence still best with woman copes; | 10 | ·/˘˘···/˘· |
| Pique her and soothe in turn, soon Passion crowns thy hopes. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| 'Tis an old lesson: Time approves it true, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| And those who know it best deplore it most; | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| When all is won that all desire to woo, | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Youth wasted, minds degraded, honour lost, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘/˘· |
| These are thy fruits, successful Passion! these! | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| If, kindly cruel, early hope is crossed, | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Still to the last it rankles, a disease, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Not to be cured when Love itself forgets to please. | 12 | ······˘/˘/·· |
| Away! nor let me loiter in my song, | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| For we have many a mountain path to tread, | 10 | ···/·/˘··· |
| And many a varied shore to sail along, | 10 | ·/·/˘···˘/ |
| By pensive Sadness, not by Fiction, led-- | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Climes, fair withal as ever mortal head | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘· |
| Imagined in its little schemes of thought; | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Or e'er in new Utopias were read: | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| To teach man what he might be, or he ought; | 10 | ·········· |
| If that corrupted thing could ever such be taught. | 11 | ··˘/˘··/··· |
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 6 [Compare Lucretius, iv. 1121-4--
"Adde quod absumunt viris pereuntque labore,
Labitur interea res, et Babylonica fiunt: Languent officia, atque aegrotat fama vacillans."] - Stanza 3, line 7 ["Were counselled or advised." The passive "were ared" seems to lack authority. (See N. Eng. Dict., art. "Aread.")]
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.