Canto III LXXIII
Is it not better, then, to be alone,And love Earth only for its earthly sake?By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone,Or the pure bosom of its nursing lake,Which feeds it as a mother who doth makeA fair but froward infant her own care,Kissing its cries away as these awake;--Is it not better thus our lives to wear,Than join the crushing crowd, doomed to inflict or bear?
I live not in myself, but I becomePortion of that around me; and to me,High mountains are a feeling, but the humOf human cities torture: I can seeNothing to loathe in Nature, save to beA link reluctant in a fleshly chain,Classed among creatures, when the soul can flee,And with the sky, the peak, the heaving plainOf ocean, or the stars, mingle, and not in vain.
And thus I am absorbed, and this is life:I look upon the peopled desert Past,As on a place of agony and strife,Where, for some sin, to Sorrow I was cast,To act and suffer, but remount at lastWith a fresh pinion; which I felt to spring,Though young, yet waxing vigorous as the blastWhich it would cope with, on delighted wing,Spurning the clay-cold bonds which round our being cling.
Words in this poem
- arrowy a.
- Consisting of arrows.
- peopled a.
- Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- remount v. t.
- To mount again.
- pinion n.
- A moth of the genus Lithophane, as L. antennata, whose larva bores large holes in young peaches and apples.
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III LXXIII 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 LXXIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-lxxiii.html, id L06563.
Form and metre
Canto III LXXIII 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 86%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 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 aloneA · sakeB · rhoneA · lakeB · makeB · careC · awakeB · wearC · bearC
- 2 ABABBCBCC becomeA · meB · humA · seeB · beB · chainC · fleeB · plainC · vainC
- 3 ABABBCBCC lifeA · pastB · strifeA · castB · lastB · springC · blastB · wingC · clingC
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 it not better, then, to be alone, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| And love Earth only for its earthly sake? | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone, | 11 | ···/˘··/˘˘· |
| Or the pure bosom of its nursing lake, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Which feeds it as a mother who doth make | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A fair but froward infant her own care, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Kissing its cries away as these awake;-- | 10 | /˘··˘/··˘/ |
| Is it not better thus our lives to wear, | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| Than join the crushing crowd, doomed to inflict or bear? | 12 | ···/˘···˘/·· |
| I live not in myself, but I become | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| Portion of that around me; and to me, | 10 | /˘········ |
| High mountains are a feeling, but the hum | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of human cities torture: I can see | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Nothing to loathe in Nature, save to be | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| A link reluctant in a fleshly chain, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Classed among creatures, when the soul can flee, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And with the sky, the peak, the heaving plain | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of ocean, or the stars, mingle, and not in vain. | 11 | ·/···/˘···· |
| And thus I am absorbed, and this is life: | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| I look upon the peopled desert Past, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| As on a place of agony and strife, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Where, for some sin, to Sorrow I was cast, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To act and suffer, but remount at last | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| With a fresh pinion; which I felt to spring, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Though young, yet waxing vigorous as the blast | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Which it would cope with, on delighted wing, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Spurning the clay-cold bonds which round our being cling. | 11 | /˘······//· |
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 3 [The name "Tigris" is derived from the Persian tir (Sanscrit Tigra), "an arrow." If Byron ever consulted Hofmann's Lexicon Universale, he would have read, "Tigris, a velocitate dictus quasi sagitta;" but most probably he neither had nor sought an authority for his natural and beautiful simile.]
- Stanza 1, line 3 The colour of the Rhone at Geneva is blue, to a depth of tint which I have never seen equalled in water, salt or fresh, except in the Mediterranean and Archipelago.
[The blueness of the Rhone, which has been attributed to various causes, is due to the comparative purity of the water. The yellow and muddy stream, during its passage through the lake, is enabled to purge itself to a very great extent of the solid matter held in suspension--the glacial and other detritus---and so, on leaving its vast natural filtering-bed, it flows out clear and blue: it has regained the proper colour of pure water.] - Stanza 2, line 3 [Compare Tintern Abbey. In this line, both language and sentiment are undoubtedly Wordsworth's--
"The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours, and their forms, were then to me An appetite, a feeling, and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm."
But here the resemblance ends. With Wordsworth the mood passed, and he learned
"To look on Nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity, Not harsh nor grating, but of amplest power To chasten and subdue."
He would not question Nature in search of new and untainted pleasure, but rests in her as inclusive of humanity. The secret of Wordsworth is acquiescence; "the still, sad music of humanity" is the key-note of his ethic. Byron, on the other hand, is in revolt. He has the ardour of a pervert, the rancorous scorn of a deserter. The "hum of human cities" is a "torture." He is "a link reluctant in a fleshly chain." To him Nature and Humanity are antagonists, and he cleaves to the one, yea, he would take her by violence, to mark his alienation and severance from the other.] - Stanza 3, line 9 [Compare Horace, Odes, iii. 2. 23, 24--
"Et udam Spernit humum fugiente penna."]
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.