Canto IV CL
There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear lightWhat do I gaze on? Nothing: Look again!Two forms are slowly shadowed on my sight--Two insulated phantoms of the brain:It is not so: I see them full and plain--An old man, and a female young and fair,Fresh as a nursing mother, in whose veinThe blood is nectar:--but what doth she there,With her unmantled neck, and bosom white and bare?
Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life,Where ON the heart and FROM the heart we tookOur first and sweetest nurture, when the wife,Blest into mother, in the innocent look,Or even the piping cry of lips that brookNo pain and small suspense, a joy perceivesMan knows not, when from out its cradled nookShe sees her little bud put forth its leaves--What may the fruit be yet?--I know not--Cain was Eve's.
But here youth offers to old age the food,The milk of his own gift:--it is her sireTo whom she renders back the debt of bloodBorn with her birth. No; he shall not expireWhile in those warm and lovely veins the fireOf health and holy feeling can provideGreat Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higherThan Egypt's river:--from that gentle sideDrink, drink and live, old man! heaven's realm holds no such tide.
Words in this poem
- dungeon n.
- A close, dark prison, commondonjon or keep of a castle, these being used as prisons. [OE. donjoun highest tower of a castle, tower, prison, F. donjon tower or platform in the midst of a castle, turret, or closet on the top of a house, a keep of a]
- drear n.
- Sadness; dismalness.
- piping a.
- Playing on a musical pipe. [From Pipe, v.]
- nook n.
- A narrow place formed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. [OE. nok; cf. Gael. & Ir. niuc.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV CL 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 IV CL, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-cl.html, id L06628.
Form and metre
Canto IV CL 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 10.3 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 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 lightA · againB · sightA · brainB · plainB · fairC · veinB · thereC · bareC
- 2 ABABBCBCC lifeA · tookB · wifeA · lookB · brookB · perceivesC · nookB · leavesC · eve'sC
- 3 ABABBCBCC foodA · sireB · bloodA · expireB · fireB · provideC · higherB · sideC · tideC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| There is a dungeon, in whose dim drear light | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What do I gaze on? Nothing: Look again! | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Two forms are slowly shadowed on my sight-- | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Two insulated phantoms of the brain: | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| It is not so: I see them full and plain-- | 10 | ·········· |
| An old man, and a female young and fair, | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Fresh as a nursing mother, in whose vein | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| The blood is nectar:--but what doth she there, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| With her unmantled neck, and bosom white and bare? | 11 | ······/˘··· |
| Full swells the deep pure fountain of young life, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Where ON the heart and FROM the heart we took | 10 | ·········· |
| Our first and sweetest nurture, when the wife, | 10 | /··/˘/˘··· |
| Blest into mother, in the innocent look, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Or even the piping cry of lips that brook | 10 | ·/·/˘····· |
| No pain and small suspense, a joy perceives | 10 | ····˘/··˘/ |
| Man knows not, when from out its cradled nook | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| She sees her little bud put forth its leaves-- | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| What may the fruit be yet?--I know not--Cain was Eve's. | 12 | ············ |
| But here youth offers to old age the food, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The milk of his own gift:--it is her sire | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| To whom she renders back the debt of blood | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Born with her birth. No; he shall not expire | 10 | ········˘/ |
| While in those warm and lovely veins the fire | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Of health and holy feeling can provide | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Great Nature's Nile, whose deep stream rises higher | 11 | ·/˘····/˘/˘ |
| Than Egypt's river:--from that gentle side | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Drink, drink and live, old man! heaven's realm holds no such tide. | 13 | ······/˘····· |
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 1, line 1 This and the three next stanzas allude to the story of the Roman daughter, which is recalled to the traveller by the site, or pretended site, of that adventure, now shown at the Church of St. Nicholas in Carcere. The difficulties attending the full belief of the tale are stated in Historical Illustrations, p. 295.
[The traditional scene of the "Caritas Romana" is a cell forming part of the substructions of the Church of S. Nicola in Carcere, near the Piazza Montanara. Festus (De Verb. Signif., lib. xiv., A. J. Valpy, 1826, ii. 594), by way of illustrating Pietas, tells the story in a few words: "It is said that AElius dedicated a temple to Pietas on the very spot where a woman dwelt of yore. Her father was shut up in prison, and she kept him alive by giving him the breast by stealth, and, as a reward for her deed, obtained his forgiveness and freedom." In Pliny (Hist. Nat., vii. 36) and in Valerius Maximus (V. 4) it is not a father, but a mother, whose life is saved by a daughter's piety.]
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.