Canto III CXVIII
To aid thy mind's development,--to watchThy dawn of little joys,--to sit and seeAlmost thy very growth,--to view thee catchKnowledge of objects, wonders yet to thee!To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee,And print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss,--This, it should seem, was not reserved for meYet this was in my nature:--As it is,I know not what is there, yet something like to this.
Yet, though dull Hate as duty should be taught,I know that thou wilt love me; though my nameShould be shut from thee, as a spell still fraughtWith desolation, and a broken claim:Though the grave closed between us,--'twere the same,I know that thou wilt love me: though to drainMY blood from out thy being were an aim,And an attainment,--all would be in vain,--Still thou wouldst love me, still that more than life retain.
The child of love,--though born in bitterness,And nurtured in convulsion. Of thy sireThese were the elements, and thine no less.As yet such are around thee; but thy fireShall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher.Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea,And from the mountains where I now respire,Fain would I waft such blessing upon thee,As, with a sigh, I deem thou mightst have been to me!
Words in this poem
- fraught n.
- A freight; a cargo. [OE.fraight, fraght; akin to Dan. fragt, Sw. frakt, D. vracht, G. fracht, cf. OHG. fr merit, reward; perh. from corresponding to E. for + The root of E. own. Cf.]
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- convulsion n.
- An unnatural, violent, and unvoluntary contraction of the muscular parts of an animal body. [L. convulsio: cf. F. convulsion.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- 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,]
- respire v. i.
- To take breath again; hence, to take rest or refreshment. [L. respirare, respiratum; pref. re- re- + spirare to breathe: cf. F. respirer. See Spirit.]
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- waft v. t.
- To give notice to by waving something; to wave the hand to; to beckon. [Prob. originally imp. & p. p. of wave, v. t. See Wave to waver.]
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III CXVIII 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 III CXVIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-cxviii.html, id L06578.
Form and metre
Canto III CXVIII 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 88%). 94% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 33% 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 watchA · seeB · catchA · theeB · kneeB · kissC · meB · isC · thisC
- 2 ABABBCBCC taughtA · nameB · fraughtA · claimB · sameB · drainC · aimB · vainC · retainC
- 3 ABABBCBCC bitternessA · sireB · lessA · fireB · higherB · seaC · respireB · theeC · meC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| To aid thy mind's development,--to watch | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Thy dawn of little joys,--to sit and see | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Almost thy very growth,--to view thee catch | 10 | /··/˘····· |
| Knowledge of objects, wonders yet to thee! | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| To hold thee lightly on a gentle knee, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And print on thy soft cheek a parent's kiss,-- | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| This, it should seem, was not reserved for me | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Yet this was in my nature:--As it is, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I know not what is there, yet something like to this. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Yet, though dull Hate as duty should be taught, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I know that thou wilt love me; though my name | 10 | ·········· |
| Should be shut from thee, as a spell still fraught | 10 | ·········· |
| With desolation, and a broken claim: | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Though the grave closed between us,--'twere the same, | 10 | ·········· |
| I know that thou wilt love me: though to drain | 10 | ·········· |
| MY blood from out thy being were an aim, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And an attainment,--all would be in vain,-- | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Still thou wouldst love me, still that more than life retain. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| The child of love,--though born in bitterness, | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And nurtured in convulsion. Of thy sire | 11 | ·/˘·˘/˘··/˘ |
| These were the elements, and thine no less. | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| As yet such are around thee; but thy fire | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Shall be more tempered, and thy hope far higher. | 11 | ···/˘····/˘ |
| Sweet be thy cradled slumbers! O'er the sea, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And from the mountains where I now respire, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Fain would I waft such blessing upon thee, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As, with a sigh, I deem thou mightst have been to me! | 12 | ············ |
Notes from the edition 3
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 ["His allusions to me in Childe Harold are cruel and cold, but with such a semblance as to make me appear so, and to attract sympathy to himself. It is said in this poem that hatred of him will be taught as a lesson to his child. I might appeal to all who have ever heard me speak of him, and still more to my own heart, to witness that there has been no moment when I have remembered injury otherwise than affectionately and sorrowfully. It is not my duty to give way to hopeless and wholly unrequited affection, but so long as I live my chief struggle will probably be not to remember him too kindly."--(Letter of Lady Byron to Lady Anne Lindsay, extracted from Lord Lindsay's letter to the Times, September 7, 1869.)
According to Mrs. Leigh (see her letter to Hodgson, Nov., 1816, Memoirs of Rev. F. Hodgson, 1878, ii. 41), Murray paid Lady Byron "the compliment" of showing her the transcription of the Third Canto, a day or two after it came into his possession. Most probably she did not know or recognize Claire's handwriting, but she could not fail to remember that but one short year ago she had herself been engaged in transcribing The Siege of Corinth and Parisina for the press. Between the making of those two "fair copies," a tragedy had intervened.] - Stanza 2, line 6 [The Countess Guiccioli is responsible for the statement that Byron looked forward to a time when his daughter "would know her father by his works." "Then," said he, "shall I triumph, and the tears which my daughter will then shed, together with the knowledge that she will have the feelings with which the various allusions to herself and me have been written, will console me in my darkest hours. Ada's mother may have enjoyed the smiles of her youth and childhood, but the tears of her maturer age will be for me."--My Recollections of Lord Byron, by the Countess Guiccioli, 1869, p. 172.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 [For a biographical notice of Ada Lady Lovelace, including letters, elsewhere unpublished, to Andrew Crosse, see Ada Byron, von E. Koelbing, Englische Studien, 1894, xix. 154-163.]
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.