Canto III LI
In their baronial feuds and single fields,What deeds of prowess unrecorded died!And Love, which lent a blazon to their shields,With emblems well devised by amorous pride,Through all the mail of iron hearts would glide;But still their flame was fierceness, and drew onKeen contest and destruction near allied,And many a tower for some fair mischief won,Saw the discoloured Rhine beneath its ruin run.
But thou, exulting and abounding river!Making thy waves a blessing as they flowThrough banks whose beauty would endure for ever,Could man but leave thy bright creation so,Nor its fair promise from the surface mowWith the sharp scythe of conflict,--then to seeThy valley of sweet waters, were to knowEarth paved like Heaven; and to seem such to meEven now what wants thy stream?--that it should Lethe be.
A thousand battles have assailed thy banks,But these and half their fame have passed away,And Slaughter heaped on high his weltering ranks:Their very graves are gone, and what are they?Thy tide washed down the blood of yesterday,And all was stainless, and on thy clear streamGlassed with its dancing light the sunny ray;But o'er the blackened memory's blighting dreamThy waves would vainly roll, all sweeping as they seem.
Words in this poem
- baronial a.
- Pertaining to a baron or a barony.
- prowess n.
- Distinguished bravery; valor; especially, military bravery and skill; gallantry; intrepidity; fearlessness. Chaucer. Sir P. Sidney. [OF. proece, proesce, F. prouesse. See Prow, a.]
- blazon v. t.
- To depict in colors; to display; to exhibit conspicuously; to publish or make public far and wide. [From blazon, n.; confused with 4th blaze: cf. F. blasonner.]
- discoloured a.
- Altered in color;
- exulting a.
- Rejoicing triumphantly or exceedingly; exultant.
- lethe n.
- A river of Hades whose waters when drunk caused forgetfulness of the past.
- stainless a.
- Free from stain; immaculate.
- sunny a.
- Of or pertaining to the sun; proceeding from, or resembling the sun; hence, shining; bright; brilliant; radiant.
- blighting a.
- Causing blight.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III LI 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 LI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-li.html, id L06555.
Form and metre
Canto III LI 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%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 30% 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 fieldsA · diedB · shieldsA · prideB · glideB · onC · alliedB · wonC · runC
- 2 ABABBCBCC riverA · flowB · everA · soB · mowB · seeC · knowB · meC · beC
- 3 ABABBCBCC banksA · awayB · ranksA · theyB · yesterdayB · streamC · rayB · dreamC · seemC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In their baronial feuds and single fields, | 11 | ··˘/˘˘··/˘· |
| What deeds of prowess unrecorded died! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| And Love, which lent a blazon to their shields, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| With emblems well devised by amorous pride, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| Through all the mail of iron hearts would glide; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But still their flame was fierceness, and drew on | 11 | ··········· |
| Keen contest and destruction near allied, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| And many a tower for some fair mischief won, | 10 | ·/·/···/˘· |
| Saw the discoloured Rhine beneath its ruin run. | 11 | ··˘/˘····/· |
| But thou, exulting and abounding river! | 11 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘/˘ |
| Making thy waves a blessing as they flow | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Through banks whose beauty would endure for ever, | 11 | ···/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Could man but leave thy bright creation so, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Nor its fair promise from the surface mow | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With the sharp scythe of conflict,--then to see | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Thy valley of sweet waters, were to know | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Earth paved like Heaven; and to seem such to me | 10 | ···/······ |
| Even now what wants thy stream?--that it should Lethe be. | 12 | /········/˘· |
| A thousand battles have assailed thy banks, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| But these and half their fame have passed away, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And Slaughter heaped on high his weltering ranks: | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Their very graves are gone, and what are they? | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Thy tide washed down the blood of yesterday, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And all was stainless, and on thy clear stream | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Glassed with its dancing light the sunny ray; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| But o'er the blackened memory's blighting dream | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Thy waves would vainly roll, all sweeping as they seem. | 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 1, line 3 [The most usual device is a bleeding heart.]
- Stanza 2, line 7 [Compare Moore's lines, The Meeting of the Waters--
"There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the wide waters meet."] - Stanza 3, line 4 [Compare Lucan's Pharsalia, ix. 969, "Etiam periere ruinae;" and the lines from Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata, xv. 20, quoted in illustration of Canto II. stanza liii.]
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.