Canto III XCIV
The sky is changed!--and such a change! O night,And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong,Yet lovely in your strength, as is the lightOf a dark eye in woman! Far along,From peak to peak, the rattling crags among,Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud,But every mountain now hath found a tongue;And Jura answers, through her misty shroud,Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud!
And this is in the night:--Most glorious night!Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me beA sharer in thy fierce and far delight--A portion of the tempest and of thee!How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea,And the big rain comes dancing to the earth!And now again 'tis black,--and now, the gleeOf the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth,As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth.
Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way betweenHeights which appear as lovers who have partedIn hate, whose mining depths so intervene,That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted;Though in their souls, which thus each other thwarted,Love was the very root of the fond rageWhich blighted their life's bloom, and then departed:Itself expired, but leaving them an ageOf years all winters--war within themselves to wage.
Words in this poem
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- lone n.
- A lane. See Loanin.
- jura n.
- 1. A range of mountains between France and Switzerland. [F. & L.]
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- sharer n.
- One who shares; a participator; a partaker; also, a divider; a distributer.
- glee n.
- Music; minstrelsy; entertainment.
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III XCIV 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 XCIV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-xciv.html, id L06570.
Form and metre
Canto III XCIV 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 89%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 4 lines end 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 nightA · strongB · lightA · alongB · amongB · cloudC · tongueB · shroudC · aloudC
- 2 ABABBCBCC nightA · beB · delightA · theeB · seaB · earthC · gleeB · mirthC · birthC
- 3 ABABBCBCC betweenA · partedB · interveneA · heartedB · thwartedB · rageC · departedB · ageC · wageC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| The sky is changed!--and such a change! O night, | 10 | ·········· |
| And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Of a dark eye in woman! Far along, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But every mountain now hath found a tongue; | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud! | 12 | ···/˘·····˘/ |
| And this is in the night:--Most glorious night! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Thou wert not sent for slumber! let me be | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| A sharer in thy fierce and far delight-- | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| A portion of the tempest and of thee! | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| How the lit lake shines, a phosphoric sea, | 10 | ······/˘˘· |
| And the big rain comes dancing to the earth! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And now again 'tis black,--and now, the glee | 10 | ··˘/······ |
| Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain-mirth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. | 12 | ····˘/···/·· |
| Now, where the swift Rhone cleaves his way between | 10 | ·········· |
| Heights which appear as lovers who have parted | 11 | ··˘/·/˘··/˘ |
| In hate, whose mining depths so intervene, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| That they can meet no more, though broken-hearted; | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Though in their souls, which thus each other thwarted, | 11 | ·······/˘/˘ |
| Love was the very root of the fond rage | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which blighted their life's bloom, and then departed: | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| Itself expired, but leaving them an age | 10 | ˘/˘/·/˘··· |
| Of years all winters--war within themselves to wage. | 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 1 The thunder-storm to which these lines refer occurred on the 13th of June, 1816, at midnight. I have seen, among the Acroceraunian mountains of Chimari, several more terrible, but none more beautiful.
- Stanza 1, line 4 [Compare the well-known song which forms the prelude of the Hebrew Melodies--
"She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes."] - Stanza 3, line 2 [There can be no doubt that Byron borrowed this metaphor from the famous passage in Coleridge's Christabel (ii. 408-426), which he afterwards prefixed as a motto to Fare Thee Well.
The latter half of the quotation runs thus--
"But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining-- They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between, But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween, The marks of that which once had been."]
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.