Canto III VI
Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain,Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string,And both may jar: it may be, that in vainI would essay as I have sung to sing.Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling,So that it wean me from the weary dreamOf selfish grief or gladness--so it flingForgetfulness around me--it shall seemTo me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme.
He who, grown aged in this world of woe,In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life,So that no wonder waits him; nor belowCan love or sorrow, fame, ambition, strife,Cut to his heart again with the keen knifeOf silent, sharp endurance: he can tellWhy thought seeks refuge in lone caves, yet rifeWith airy images, and shapes which dwellStill unimpaired, though old, in the soul's haunted cell.
'Tis to create, and in creating liveA being more intense, that we endowWith form our fancy, gaining as we giveThe life we image, even as I do now.What am I? Nothing: but not so art thou,Soul of my thought! with whom I traverse earth,Invisible but gazing, as I glowMixed with thy spirit, blended with thy birth,And feeling still with thee in my crushed feelings' dearth.
Words in this poem
- dreary a.
- Sorrowful; distressful. [OE. dreori, dreri, AS. dreórig, sad; akin to G. traurig, and prob. to AS. dreósan to fall, Goth. driusan. Cf. Dross, Drear, Drizzle, Drowse.]
- 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,]
- ungrateful a.
- Not grateful; not thankful for favors; making no returns, or making ill return for kindness, attention, etc.; ingrateful. South.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- rife a.
- Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. [AS. rif abundant, or Icel. rifr munificent; akin to OD. riff, rijve, abundant.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- haunted a.
- Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
- dearth n.
- Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. [OE. derthe, fr. dere. See Dear.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III VI 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 VI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-vi.html, id L06540.
Form and metre
Canto III VI 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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 48% 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 painA · stringB · vainA · singB · clingB · dreamC · flingB · seemC · themeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC woeA · lifeB · belowA · strifeB · knifeB · tellC · rifeB · dwellC · cellC
- 3 ABABBCBCC liveA · endowB · giveA · nowB · thouB · earthC · glowB · birthC · dearthC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string, | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And both may jar: it may be, that in vain | 10 | ·········· |
| I would essay as I have sung to sing. | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| So that it wean me from the weary dream | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of selfish grief or gladness--so it fling | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Forgetfulness around me--it shall seem | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| To me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme. | 12 | ········˘/˘· |
| He who, grown aged in this world of woe, | 9 | ········· |
| In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| So that no wonder waits him; nor below | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Can love or sorrow, fame, ambition, strife, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| Cut to his heart again with the keen knife | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Of silent, sharp endurance: he can tell | 10 | ·/˘·/˘˘··· |
| Why thought seeks refuge in lone caves, yet rife | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With airy images, and shapes which dwell | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Still unimpaired, though old, in the soul's haunted cell. | 12 | ··˘/·····/˘· |
| 'Tis to create, and in creating live | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
| A being more intense, that we endow | 10 | ·/˘·˘/··˘/ |
| With form our fancy, gaining as we give | 10 | ··//˘/˘··· |
| The life we image, even as I do now. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| What am I? Nothing: but not so art thou, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Soul of my thought! with whom I traverse earth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Invisible but gazing, as I glow | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Mixed with thy spirit, blended with thy birth, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| And feeling still with thee in my crushed feelings' dearth. | 12 | ·/˘······/˘· |
Notes from the edition 2
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 2, line 2 [Compare Manfred, act ii. sc. 1, lines 51, 52--
"Think'st thou existence doth depend on time? It doth; but actions are our epoch."] - Stanza 3, line 1 [It is the poet's fond belief that he can find the true reality in "the things that are not seen."
"Out of these create he can Forms more real than living man-- Nurslings of Immortality."
"Life is but thought," and by the power of the imagination he thinks to "gain a being more intense," to add a cubit to his spiritual stature. Byron professes the same faith in The Dream (stanza i. lines 19-22), which also belongs to the summer of 1816--
"The mind can make Substance, and people planets of its own With beings brighter than have been, and give A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh."
At this stage of his poetic growth, in part converted by Shelley, in part by Wordsworth as preached by Shelley, Byron, so to speak, "got religion," went over for a while to the Church of the mystics. There was, too, a compulsion from within. Life had gone wrong with him, and, driven from memory and reflection, he looks for redemption in the new earth which Imagination and Nature held in store.]
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.