Canto III III
Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child!Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart?When last I saw thy young blue eyes, they smiled,And then we parted,--not as now we part,But with a hope.--Awaking with a start,The waters heave around me; and on highThe winds lift up their voices: I depart,Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by,When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.
Once more upon the waters! yet once more!And the waves bound beneath me as a steedThat knows his rider. Welcome to their roar!Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead!Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed,And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale,Still must I on; for I am as a weed,Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sailWhere'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail.
In my youth's summer I did sing of One,The wandering outlaw of his own dark mind;Again I seize the theme, then but begun,And bear it with me, as the rushing windBears the cloud onwards: in that tale I findThe furrows of long thought, and dried-up tears,Which, ebbing, leave a sterile track behind,O'er which all heavily the journeying yearsPlod the last sands of life--where not a flower appears.
Words in this poem
- depart v. i.
- To part; to divide; to separate. [OE. departen to divide, part, depart, F. départir to divide, distribute, se départir to separate one's self, depart; pref. dé- (L. de) + partir to part, depart,]
- whither adv.
- To what place; -- used interrogatively; as, whither goest thou [OE. whider. AS. hwider; akin to E. where, who; cf. Goth. hvadre whither. See Who, and cf. Hither, Thither.]
- steed n.
- A horse, especially a spirited horse for state of war; -- used chiefly in poetry or stately prose. [OE. stede, AS. steda a stud-horse, war horse, fr. stod a stud of breeding steeds; akin to G. stute a mare, Icel. stedda, sto, a stud. *163. See Stud of horses.]
- plod v. i.
- To travel slowly but steadily; to trudge. [Gf. Gael. plod a clod, a pool; also, to strike or pelt with a clod or clods.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III III 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 III, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-iii.html, id L06539.
Form and metre
Canto III III is 28 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABBCBCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.9 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See 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 ABAB-BCBCC childA · heartB · smiledA · partB · hope · startB · highC · departB · byC · eyeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC moreA · steedB · roarA · leadB · reedB · galeC · weedB · sailC · prevailC
- 3 ABABBCBCC oneA · mindB · begunA · windB · findB · tearsC · behindB · yearsC · appearsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ada! sole daughter of my house and heart? | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| When last I saw thy young blue eyes, they smiled, | 10 | ·········· |
| And then we parted,--not as now we part, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But with a hope.-- | 4 | ···· |
| Awaking with a start, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| The waters heave around me; and on high | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The winds lift up their voices: I depart, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by, | 10 | /˘·····/·· |
| When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye. | 12 | ·/˘/˘······· |
| Once more upon the waters! yet once more! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the waves bound beneath me as a steed | 10 | ·········· |
| That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar! | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead! | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And the rent canvas fluttering strew the gale, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Still must I on; for I am as a weed, | 10 | ·········· |
| Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail. | 13 | ˘˘/·····/˘·˘/ |
| In my youth's summer I did sing of One, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The wandering outlaw of his own dark mind; | 10 | ·/˘/······ |
| Again I seize the theme, then but begun, | 10 | ˘/······˘/ |
| And bear it with me, as the rushing wind | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Bears the cloud onwards: in that tale I find | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The furrows of long thought, and dried-up tears, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Which, ebbing, leave a sterile track behind, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| O'er which all heavily the journeying years | 10 | ···/˘·/˘˘· |
| Plod the last sands of life--where not a flower appears. | 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 2 ["If you turn over the earlier pages of the Huntingdon peerage story, you will see how common a name Ada was in the early Plantagenet days. I found it in my own pedigree in the reigns of John and Henry.... It is short, ancient, vocalic, and had been in my family; for which reasons I gave it to my daughter."--Letter to Murray, Ravenna, October 8, 1820.
The Honourable Augusta Ada Byron was born December 10, 1815; was married July 8, 1835, to William King Noel (1805-1893), eighth Baron King, created Earl of Lovelace, 1838; and died November 27, 1852. There were three children of the marriage--Viscount Ockham (d. 1862), the present Earl of Lovelace, and the Lady Anna Isabella Noel, who was married to Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Esq., in 1869.
"The Countess of Lovelace," wrote a contributor to the Examiner, December 4, 1852, "was thoroughly original, and the poet's temperament was all that was hers in common with her father. Her genius, for genius she possessed, was not poetic, but metaphysical and mathematical, her mind having been in the constant practice of investigation, and with rigour and exactness." Of her devotion to science, and her original powers as a mathematician, her translation and explanatory notes of F. L. Menabrea's Notices sur le machine Analytique de Mr. Babbage, 1842, a defence of the famous "calculating machine," remain as evidence.
"Those who view mathematical science not merely as a vast body of abstract and immutable truths, ... but as possessing a yet deeper interest for the human race, when it is remembered that this science constitutes the language through which alone we can adequately express the great facts of the natural world ... those who thus think on mathematical truth as the instrument through which the weak mind of man can most effectually read his Creator's works, will regard with especial interest all that can tend to facilitate the translation of its principles into explicit practical forms." So, for the moment turning away from algebraic formulae and abstruse calculations, wrote Ada, Lady Lovelace, in her twenty-eighth year. See "Translator's Notes," signed A. A. L., to A Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage, Esq., London, 1843.
It would seem, however, that she "wore her learning lightly as a flower." "Her manners [Examiner], her tastes, her accomplishments, in many of which, music especially, she was proficient, were feminine in the nicest sense of … - Stanza 2, line 1 Compare Henry V., act iii. sc. 1, line 1--"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more."
- Stanza 2, line 3 [Compare The Two Noble Kinsmen (now attributed to Shakespeare, Fletcher, and Massinger), act ii. sc. 1, lines 73, seq.--
"Oh, never Shall we two exercise like twins of Honour Our arms again, and feel our fiery horses Like proud seas under us."
"Out of this somewhat forced simile," says the editor (John Wright) of Lord Byron's Poetical Works, issued in 1832, "by a judicious transposition of the comparison, and by the substitution of the more definite waves for seas, Lord Byron's clear and noble thought has been produced." But the literary artifice, if such there be, is subordinate to the emotion of the writer. It is in movement, progress, flight, that the sufferer experiences a relief from the poignancy of his anguish.] - Stanza 3, line 2 ["The metaphor is derived from a torrent-bed, which, when dried up, serves for a sandy or shingly path."--Note by H. F. Tozer, Childe Harold, 1885, p. 257. Or, perhaps, the imagery has been suggested by the action of a flood, which ploughs a channel for itself through fruitful soil, and, when the waters are spent, leaves behind it "a sterile track," which does, indeed, permit the traveller to survey the desolation, but serves no other purpose of use or beauty.]
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.