Canto III XXXIII
I turned to thee, to thousands, of whom eachAnd one as all a ghastly gap did makeIn his own kind and kindred, whom to teachForgetfulness were mercy for their sake;The Archangel's trump, not Glory's, must awakeThose whom they thirst for; though the sound of FameMay for a moment soothe, it cannot slakeThe fever of vain longing, and the nameSo honoured, but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim.
They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling, mourn:The tree will wither long before it fall:The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn;The roof-tree sinks, but moulders on the hallIn massy hoariness; the ruined wallStands when its wind-worn battlements are gone;The bars survive the captive they enthral;The day drags through though storms keep out the sun;And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on:
E'en as a broken mirror, which the glassIn every fragment multiplies; and makesA thousand images of one that was,The same, and still the more, the more it breaks;And thus the heart will do which not forsakes,Living in shattered guise, and still, and cold,And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches,Yet withers on till all without is old,Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold.
Words in this poem
- soothe v. t.
- To assent to as true. Testament of Love. [Originally, to assent to as true; OE. so to verify, AS. ges to prove the truth of, to bear witness. See Sooth, a.]
- massy a.
- Compacted into, or consisting of, a mass; having bulk and weight ot substance; ponderous; bulky and heavy; weight; heavy; as, a massy shield; a massy rock.
- hoariness n.
- The state of being hoary. [From Hoary.]
- brokenly adv.
- In a broken, interrupted manner; in a broken state; in broken language.
- sleepless a.
- Having no sleep; wakeful.
- withers n.
- The ridge between the shoulder bones of a horse, at the base of the neck. See Illust. of Horse. [Properly, the parts which resist the pull or strain in drawing a load; fr. OE. wither resistance, AS. withre, fr. wither against; akin to G. widerrist withers. ]
- untold a.
- Not told; not related; not revealed; as, untold secrets.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto III XXXIII 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 XXXIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iii-xxxiii.html, id L06549.
Form and metre
Canto III XXXIII 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 88%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 41% 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 eachA · makeB · teachA · sakeB · awakeB · fameC · slakeB · nameC · claimC
- 2 ABABBCBCC mournA · fallB · tornA · hallB · wallB · goneC · enthralB · sunC · onC
- 3 ABABBCBCC glassA · makesB · wasA · breaksB · forsakesB · coldC · achesB · oldC · untoldC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I turned to thee, to thousands, of whom each | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And one as all a ghastly gap did make | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake; | 10 | ˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| The Archangel's trump, not Glory's, must awake | 11 | ··/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Those whom they thirst for; though the sound of Fame | 10 | ·········· |
| May for a moment soothe, it cannot slake | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The fever of vain longing, and the name | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| So honoured, but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim. | 13 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘···· |
| They mourn, but smile at length; and, smiling, mourn: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The tree will wither long before it fall: | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn; | 10 | ·········· |
| The roof-tree sinks, but moulders on the hall | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In massy hoariness; the ruined wall | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone; | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| The bars survive the captive they enthral; | 10 | ··˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| The day drags through though storms keep out the sun; | 10 | ·········· |
| And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on: | 12 | ·······/˘˘·· |
| E'en as a broken mirror, which the glass | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| In every fragment multiplies; and makes | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| A thousand images of one that was, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| The same, and still the more, the more it breaks; | 10 | ·········· |
| And thus the heart will do which not forsakes, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Living in shattered guise, and still, and cold, | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
| And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Yet withers on till all without is old, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold. | 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 9 [So, too, Coleridge. "Have you never seen a stick broken in the middle, and yet cohering by the rind? The fibres, half of them actually broken and the rest sprained, and, though tough, unsustaining? Oh, many, many are the broken-hearted for those who know what the moral and practical heart of the man is."--Anima Poetae, 1895, p. 303.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 [According to Lady Blessington (Conversations, p. 176), Byron maintained that the image of the broken mirror had in some mysterious way been suggested by the following quatrain which Curran had once repeated to him:--
"While memory, with more than Egypt's art Embalming all the sorrows of the heart, Sits at the altar which she raised to woe, And finds the scene whence tears eternal flow."
But, as M. Darmesteter points out, the true source of inspiration was a passage in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy--"the book," as Byron maintained, "in my opinion most useful to a man who wishes to acquire the reputation of being well-read with the least trouble" (Life, p. 48). Burton is discoursing on injury and long-suffering. "'Tis a Hydra's head contention; the more they strive, the more they may; and as Praxiteles did by his glass [see Cardan, De Consolatione, lib. iii.], when he saw a scurvy face in it, break it in pieces; but for the one he saw, he saw many more as bad in a moment; for one injury done, they provoke another cum fanore, and twenty enemies for one."--Anatomy of Melancholy, 1893, ii. 228. Compare, too, Carew's poem, The Spark, lines 23-26--
"And as a looking-glass, from the aspect, Whilst it is whole doth but one face reflect, But being crack'd or broken, there are shewn Many half-faces, which at first were one. Anderson's British Poets, 1793, iii. 703.]
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