Canto III LXXXII
His life was one long war with self-sought foes,Or friends by him self-banished; for his mindHad grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and choseFor its own cruel sacrifice, the kind,'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind.But he was frenzied,--wherefore, who may know?Since cause might be which skill could never find;But he was frenzied by disease or woeTo that worst pitch of all, which wears a reasoning show.
For then he was inspired, and from him came,As from the Pythian's mystic cave of yore,Those oracles which set the world in flame,Nor ceased to burn till kingdoms were no more:Did he not this for France, which lay beforeBowed to the inborn tyranny of years?Broken and trembling to the yoke she bore,Till by the voice of him and his compeersRoused up to too much wrath, which follows o'ergrown fears?
They made themselves a fearful monument!The wreck of old opinions--things which grew,Breathed from the birth of time: the veil they rent,And what behind it lay, all earth shall view.But good with ill they also overthrew,Leaving but ruins, wherewith to rebuildUpon the same foundation, and renewDungeons and thrones, which the same hour refilled,As heretofore, because ambition was self-willed.
Words in this poem
- wherefore adv.
- For which reason; so; -- used relatively. [Where + for.]
- yore adv.
- In time long past; in old time; long since. [OE. , yare, , AS. geára;akin to geár a year, E. year. Year.]
- 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,]
- wherewith adv.
- With which; -- used relatively.
- rebuild v. t.
- To build again, as something which has been demolished; to construct anew; as, to rebuild a house, a wall, a wharf, or a city.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III LXXXII 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 LXXXII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-lxxxii.html, id L06566.
Form and metre
Canto III LXXXII 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 84%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 26% 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 foesA · mindB · choseA · kindB · blindB · knowC · findB · woeC · showC
- 2 ABABBCBCC cameA · yoreB · flameA · moreB · beforeB · yearsC · boreB · compeersC · fearsC
- 3 ABABBCBCC monumentA · grewB · rentA · viewB · overthrewB · rebuildC · renewB · refilledC · willedC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| His life was one long war with self-sought foes, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or friends by him self-banished; for his mind | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Had grown Suspicion's sanctuary, and chose | 11 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘·· |
| For its own cruel sacrifice, the kind, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| 'Gainst whom he raged with fury strange and blind. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But he was frenzied,--wherefore, who may know? | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Since cause might be which skill could never find; | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But he was frenzied by disease or woe | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| To that worst pitch of all, which wears a reasoning show. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| For then he was inspired, and from him came, | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| As from the Pythian's mystic cave of yore, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Those oracles which set the world in flame, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Nor ceased to burn till kingdoms were no more: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Did he not this for France, which lay before | 10 | ·········· |
| Bowed to the inborn tyranny of years? | 10 | ···/·/˘˘·· |
| Broken and trembling to the yoke she bore, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| Till by the voice of him and his compeers | 10 | ·········· |
| Roused up to too much wrath, which follows o'ergrown fears? | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| They made themselves a fearful monument! | 10 | ··˘/·/˘/˘˘ |
| The wreck of old opinions--things which grew, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Breathed from the birth of time: the veil they rent, | 10 | ·········· |
| And what behind it lay, all earth shall view. | 10 | ·········· |
| But good with ill they also overthrew, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Leaving but ruins, wherewith to rebuild | 10 | /˘·/˘˘/·˘/ |
| Upon the same foundation, and renew | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Dungeons and thrones, which the same hour refilled, | 10 | /˘·····/˘/ |
| As heretofore, because ambition was self-willed. | 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 [As, for instance, with Madame de Warens, in 1738; with Madame d'Epinay; with Diderot and Grimm, in 1757; with Voltaire; with David Hume, in 1766 (see "Rousseau in England," Q. R., No. 376, October, 1898); with every one to whom he was attached or with whom he had dealings, except his illiterate mistress, Theresa le Vasseur. (See Rousseau, by John Morley, 2 vols., 1888, passim.)]
- Stanza 2, line 1 ["He was possessed, as holier natures than his have been, by an enthusiastic vision, an intoxicated confidence, a mixture of sacred rage and prodigious love, an insensate but absolutely disinterested revolt against the stone and iron of a reality which he was bent on melting in a heavenly blaze of splendid aspiration and irresistibly persuasive expression."--Rousseau, by John Morley, 1886, i. 137.]
- Stanza 2, line 3 [Rousseau published his Discourses on the influence of the sciences, on manners, and on inequality (Sur l'Origine ... de l'Inegalite parmi les Hommes) in 1750 and 1753; Emile, ou, de l'Education, and Du Contrat Social in 1762.]
- Stanza 2, line 6 ["What Rousseau's Discourse [Sur l'Origine ... de l'Inegalite, etc.] meant ... is not that all men are born equal. He never says this.... His position is that the artificial differences, springing from the conditions of the social union, do not coincide with the differences in capacity springing from original constitution; that the tendency of the social union as now organized is to deepen the artificial inequalities, and make the gulf between those endowed with privileges and wealth, and those not so endowed, ever wider and wider.... It was ... [the influence of Rousseau ... and those whom he inspired] which, though it certainly did not produce, yet did as certainly give a deep and remarkable bias, first to the American Revolution, and a dozen years afterwards to the French Revolution."--Rousseau, 1888, i. 181, 182.]
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