Canto IV CLIII
The starry fable of the milky wayHas not thy story's purity; it isA constellation of a sweeter ray,And sacred Nature triumphs more in thisReverse of her decree, than in the abyssWhere sparkle distant worlds:--Oh, holiest nurse!No drop of that clear stream its way shall missTo thy sire's heart, replenishing its sourceWith life, as our freed souls rejoin the universe.
Turn to the mole which Hadrian reared on high,Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles,Colossal copyist of deformity,Whose travelled phantasy from the far Nile'sEnormous model, doomed the artist's toilsTo build for giants, and for his vain earth,His shrunken ashes, raise this dome: How smilesThe gazer's eye with philosophic mirth,To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth!
But lo! the dome--the vast and wondrous dome,To which Diana's marvel was a cell--Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb!I have beheld the Ephesian's miracle--Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwellThe hyaena and the jackal in their shade;I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swellTheir glittering mass i' the sun, and have surveyedIts sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem prayed;
Words in this poem
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- 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,]
- rejoin v. t.
- To join again; to unite after separation. [F. rejoindre; pref. re- re- + joindre to join. See Join, and cf. Rejoinder.]
- colossal a.
- Of enormous size; gigantic; huge; as, a colossal statue. [Cf. F. cossal, L. colosseus. See Colossus.]
- copyist n.
- A copier; a transcriber; an imitator; a plagiarist.
- philosophic a.
- Of or pertaining to philosophy; versed in, or imbued with, the principles of philosophy; hence, characterizing a philosopher; rational; wise; temperate; calm; cool. [L. philosophicus: cf. F. philosophique.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- 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]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV CLIII 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 CLIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-cliii.html, id L06629.
Form and metre
Canto IV CLIII 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 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% 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 wayA · isB · rayA · thisB · abyssB · nurseC · missB · sourceC · universeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC highA · pilesB · deformityA · nile'sB · toilsB · earthC · smilesB · mirthC · birthC
- 3 ABABBCBCC domeA · cellB · tombA · miracleB · dwellB · shadeC · swellB · surveyedC · prayedC
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 starry fable of the milky way | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Has not thy story's purity; it is | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| A constellation of a sweeter ray, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And sacred Nature triumphs more in this | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Reverse of her decree, than in the abyss | 11 | ˘/··˘/···˘/ |
| Where sparkle distant worlds:--Oh, holiest nurse! | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| No drop of that clear stream its way shall miss | 10 | ·········· |
| To thy sire's heart, replenishing its source | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| With life, as our freed souls rejoin the universe. | 12 | ···/··˘/·/˘· |
| Turn to the mole which Hadrian reared on high, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Colossal copyist of deformity, | 11 | ˘/˘/˘˘·˘/˘˘ |
| Whose travelled phantasy from the far Nile's | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Enormous model, doomed the artist's toils | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| To build for giants, and for his vain earth, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| His shrunken ashes, raise this dome: How smiles | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| The gazer's eye with philosophic mirth, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth! | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| But lo! the dome--the vast and wondrous dome, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To which Diana's marvel was a cell-- | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Christ's mighty shrine above his martyr's tomb! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| I have beheld the Ephesian's miracle-- | 11 | ··˘/····/˘˘ |
| Its columns strew the wilderness, and dwell | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| The hyaena and the jackal in their shade; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Their glittering mass i' the sun, and have surveyed | 11 | ·/˘······/· |
| Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem prayed; | 14 | ·/˘·˘····/˘/˘· |
Notes from the edition 6
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 [It was fabled of the Milky Way that when Mercury held up the infant Hercules to Juno's breast, that he might drink in divinity, the goddess pushed him away, and that drops of milk fell into the void, and became a multitude of tiny stars. The story is told by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (B.C. 276), in his Catasterismi (Treatise on Star Legends), No. 44: Opusc. Mythol., Amsterdam, 1688, p. 136.]
- Stanza 2, line 1 The castle of St. Angelo. (See Historical Illustrations.)
[Hadrian's mole or mausoleum, now the Castle of St. Angelo, is situated on the banks of the Tiber, on the site of the "Horti Neronis." "It is composed of a square basement, each side of which measures 247 feet.... A grand circular mole, nearly 1000 feet in circumference, stands on the square basement," and, originally, "supported in its turn a cone of earth covered with evergreens, like the mausoleum of Augustus." A spiral way led to a central chamber in the interior of the mole, which contained, presumably, the porphyry sarcophagus in which Antoninus Pius deposited the ashes of Hadrian, and the tomb of the Antonines. Honorius (A.D. 428) was probably the first to convert the mausoleum into a fortress. The bronze statue of the Destroying Angel, which is placed on the summit, dates from 1740, and is the successor to five earlier statues, of which the first was erected in 1453. The conception and execution of the Moles Hadriana are entirely Roman, and, except in size and solidity, it is in no sense a mimic pyramid.--Ruins and Excavations, etc., by R. Lanciani, 1897, p. 554, sq.] - Stanza 3, line 1 [Compare The Prophecy of Dante, iv. 49-53--
"While still stands The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar A dome, its image, while the base expands Into a fane surpassing all before, Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in--"
Compare, too, Browning's Christmas Eve, sect, x.--
"Is it really on the earth, This miraculous dome of God? Has the angel's measuring-rod Which numbered cubits, gem from gem, 'Twixt the gates of the new Jerusalem, Meted it out,--and what he meted, Have the sons of men completed? --Binding ever as he bade, Columns in the colonnade, With arms wide open to embrace The entry of the human race?"] - Stanza 3, line 4 [The ruins which Byron and Hobhouse explored, March 25, 1810 (Travels in Albania, ii. 68-71), were not the ruins of the second Temple of Artemis, the sixth wonder of the world (vide Philo Byzantius, De Septem Orbis Miraculis), but, probably, those of "the great gymnasium near the port of the city." In 1810, and for long afterwards, the remains of the temple were buried under twenty feet of earth, and it was not till 1870 that the late Mr. J. T. Wood, the agent of the Trustees of the British Museum, had so far completed his excavations as to discover the foundations of the building on the exact spot which had been pointed out by Guhl in 1843. Fragments of the famous sculptured columns, thirty-six in number, says Pliny (Hist. Nat., xxxvi. 95), were also brought to light, and are now in the British Museum. (See Modern Discoveries on the Site of Ancient Ephesus, by J. T. Wood, 1890; Hist. of Greek Sculpture, by A. S. Murray, ii. 304.)]
- Stanza 3, line 6 [Compare Don Juan, Canto IX. stanza xxvii. line 2--"I have heard them in the Ephesian ruins howl."]
- Stanza 3, line 9 [Compare Canto II. stanza lxxix. lines 2, 3--
"Oh Stamboul! once the Empress of their reign, Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrine."]
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