Canto III XXIV
Did ye not hear it?--No; 'twas but the wind,Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meetTo chase the glowing Hours with flying feet.But hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once more,As if the clouds its echo would repeat;And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!Arm! arm! it is--it is--the cannon's opening roar!
Within a windowed niche of that high hallSate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hearThat sound, the first amidst the festival,And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear;And when they smiled because he deemed it near,His heart more truly knew that peal too wellWhich stretched his father on a bloody bier,And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell:He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.
Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,And cheeks all pale, which but an hour agoBlushed at the praise of their own loveliness;And there were sudden partings, such as pressThe life from out young hearts, and choking sighsWhich ne'er might be repeated: who would guessIf ever more should meet those mutual eyes,Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!
Words in this poem
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
- windowed a.
- Having windows or openings.
- sate v. t.
- To satisfy the desire or appetite of; to satiate; to glut; to surfeit. [Probably shortened fr. satiate: cf. L. satus full. See Satiate.]
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- peal v. i.
- To appeal. Spencer.
- bier n.
- A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed or borne to the grave. [OE. bæe, beere, AS. b, b; akin to D. baar, OHG. bara, G. bahre, Icel barar, Dbaare, L. feretrum, Gr. , from the same bear to produce. See 1st Bear, and cf. Barr]
- quell v. t.
- To take the life of; to kill. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]
- rushed a.
- Abounding or covered with rushes.
- loveliness n.
- The state or quality of being lovely. [From Lovely.]
- choking a.
- That chokes; producing the feeling of strangulation.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III XXIV 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 XXIV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-xxiv.html, id L06546.
Form and metre
Canto III XXIV 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. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 windA · streetB · unconfinedA · meetB · feetB · moreC · repeatB · beforeC · roarC
- 2 ABABBCBCC hallA · hearB · festivalA · earB · nearB · wellC · bierB · quellC · fellC
- 3 ABABBCBCC froA · distressB · agoA · lovelinessB · pressB · sighsC · guessB · eyesC · riseC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Did ye not hear it?--No; 'twas but the wind, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or the car rattling o'er the stony street; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet. | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| But hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once more, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As if the clouds its echo would repeat; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Arm! arm! it is--it is--the cannon's opening roar! | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| Within a windowed niche of that high hall | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| That sound, the first amidst the festival, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear; | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| And when they smiled because he deemed it near, | 10 | ·········· |
| His heart more truly knew that peal too well | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Which stretched his father on a bloody bier, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell: | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. | 12 | ·······/·/˘· |
| Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago | 10 | ·······/˘/ |
| Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And there were sudden partings, such as press | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Which ne'er might be repeated: who would guess | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, | 10 | ·/····/˘˘· |
| Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise! | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 1
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 [Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick (1771-1815), brother to Caroline, Princess of Wales, and nephew of George III., fighting at Quatrebras in the front of the line, "fell almost in the beginning of the battle." His father, Charles William Ferdinand, born 1735, the author of the fatal manifesto against the army of the French Republic (July 15, 1792), was killed at Auerbach, October 14, 1806. In the plan of the Duke of Richmond's house, which Lady de Ros published in her Recollections, the actual spot is marked (the door of the ante-room leading to the ball-room) where Lady Georgiana Lennox took leave of the Duke of Brunswick. "It was a dreadful evening," she writes, "taking leave of friends and acquaintances, many never to be seen again. The Duke of Brunswick, as he took leave of me ... made me a civil speech as to the Brunswickers being sure to distinguish themselves after 'the honour' done them by my having accompanied the Duke of Wellington to their review! I remember being quite provoked with poor Lord Hay, a dashing, merry youth, full of military ardour, whom I knew very well, for his delight at the idea of going into action ... and the first news we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of Brunswick were killed."--A Sketch, etc., pp. 132, 133.]
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