Canto III LXXXVIII
It is the hush of night, and all betweenThy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear,Mellowed and mingling, yet distinctly seen.Save darkened Jura, whose capt heights appearPrecipitously steep; and drawing near,There breathes a living fragrance from the shore,Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the earDrops the light drip of the suspended oar,Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more;
He is an evening reveller, who makesHis life an infancy, and sings his fill;At intervals, some bird from out the brakesStarts into voice a moment, then is still.There seems a floating whisper on the hill,But that is fancy, for the starlight dewsAll silently their tears of love instil,Weeping themselves away, till they infuseDeep into Nature's breast the spirit of her hues.
Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven,If in your bright leaves we would read the fateOf men and empires,--'tis to be forgiven,That in our aspirations to be great,Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state,And claim a kindred with you; for ye areA beauty and a mystery, and createIn us such love and reverence from afar,That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star.
Words in this poem
- jura n.
- 1. A range of mountains between France and Switzerland. [F. & L.]
- childhood n.
- The state of being a child; the time in which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. [AS. cildhad; cild child + -had. See Child, and hood.]
- drip v. i.
- To fall in drops; as, water drips from the eaves. [Akin to LG. drippen, Dan. dryppe, from a noun. See Drop.]
- carol v. t.
- To praise or celebrate in song.
- starlight n.
- The light given by the stars.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III LXXXVIII 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 LXXXVIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-lxxxviii.html, id L06568.
Form and metre
Canto III LXXXVIII 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 82%). 88% 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. 37% 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 betweenA · clearB · seenA · appearB · nearB · shoreC · earB · oarC · moreC
- 2 ABABBCBCC makesA · fillB · brakesA · stillB · hillB · dewsC · instilB · infuseC · huesC
- 3 ABABBCBCC heavenA · fateB · forgivenA · greatB · stateB · areC · createB · afarC · starC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| It is the hush of night, and all between | 10 | ·········· |
| Thy margin and the mountains, dusk, yet clear, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Mellowed and mingling, yet distinctly seen. | 10 | /˘·/˘·˘/˘· |
| Save darkened Jura, whose capt heights appear | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| Precipitously steep; and drawing near, | 10 | ·/˘˘˘··/˘· |
| There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the ear | 10 | ·/···/···· |
| Drops the light drip of the suspended oar, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Or chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more; | 12 | ···/·˘···/˘· |
| He is an evening reveller, who makes | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| His life an infancy, and sings his fill; | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| At intervals, some bird from out the brakes | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Starts into voice a moment, then is still. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| There seems a floating whisper on the hill, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| But that is fancy, for the starlight dews | 10 | ···/˘··/·· |
| All silently their tears of love instil, | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Weeping themselves away, till they infuse | 10 | /˘˘/˘/··˘/ |
| Deep into Nature's breast the spirit of her hues. | 11 | ···/˘··/··· |
| Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven, | 11 | ·····/˘˘·/˘ |
| If in your bright leaves we would read the fate | 10 | ·········· |
| Of men and empires,--'tis to be forgiven, | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| That in our aspirations to be great, | 10 | ··/·˘/˘··· |
| Our destinies o'erleap their mortal state, | 10 | //˘˘···/˘· |
| And claim a kindred with you; for ye are | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| A beauty and a mystery, and create | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| In us such love and reverence from afar, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star. | 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 4 [After sunset the Jura range, which lies to the west of the Lake, would appear "darkened" in contrast to the afterglow in the western sky.]
- Stanza 2, line 2 [Compare Anacreon ([Greek: Ei)s te/ttiga]), Carm. xliii. line 15--
[Greek: To\ de\ ge~ras ou)\ se tei/rei.].] - Stanza 3, line 9 [For the association of "Fortune" and "Fame" with a star, compare stanza xi. lines 5, 6--
"Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold The star which rises o'er her steep," etc.?
And the allusion to Napoleon's "star," stanza xxxviii. line 9--
"Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest Star."
Compare, too, the opening lines of the Stanzas to Augusta (July 24, 1816)--
"Though the day of my destiny's over, And the star of my fate has declined."
"Power" is symbolized as a star in Numb. xxiv. 17, "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel;" and in the divine proclamation, "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star" (Rev. xxii. 16).
The inclusion of "life" among star similes may have been suggested by the astrological terms, "house of life" and "lord of the ascendant." Wordsworth, in his Ode (Intimations of Immortality, etc.) speaks of the soul as "our life's star." Mr. Tozer, who supplies most of these "comparisons," adds a line from Shelley's Adonais, 55. 8 (Pisa, 1821)--
"The soul of Adonais, like a star."]
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.