Canto IV CLVI
But thou, of temples old, or altars new,Standest alone--with nothing like to thee--Worthiest of God, the holy and the true,Since Zion's desolation, when that heForsook his former city, what could be,Of earthly structures, in his honour piled,Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty,Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisledIn this eternal ark of worship undefiled.
Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not;And why? it is not lessened; but thy mind,Expanded by the genius of the spot,Has grown colossal, and can only findA fit abode wherein appear enshrinedThy hopes of immortality; and thouShalt one day, if found worthy, so defined,See thy God face to face, as thou dost nowHis Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by his brow.
Thou movest--but increasing with th' advance,Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise,Deceived by its gigantic elegance;Vastness which grows--but grows to harmonise--All musical in its immensities;Rich marbles--richer painting--shrines where flameThe lamps of gold--and haughty dome which viesIn air with Earth's chief structures, though their frameSits on the firm-set ground--and this the clouds must claim.
Words in this poem
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- piled a.
- Having a pile or point; pointed. [From 2d Pile.]
- aisled a.
- Furnished with an aisle or aisles.
- colossal a.
- Of enormous size; gigantic; huge; as, a colossal statue. [Cf. F. cossal, L. colosseus. See Colossus.]
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- blasted a.
- Blighted; withered.
- harmonise v. i.
- To agree in action, adaptation, or effect on the mind; to agree in sense or purport; as, the parts of a mechanism harmonize. [Cf. F. harmoniser.]
- haughty a.
- High; lofty; bold. [OE. hautein, F. hautain, fr. haut high, OF. also halt, fr. L. altus. See Altitude.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV CLVI 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 CLVI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-clvi.html, id L06630.
Form and metre
Canto IV CLVI 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%). 88% 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. 33% 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 newA · theeB · trueA · heB · beB · piledC · majestyB · aisledC · undefiledC
- 2 ABABBCBCC notA · mindB · spotA · findB · enshrinedB · thouC · definedB · nowC · browC
- 3 ABABBCBCC advanceA · riseB · eleganceA · harmoniseB · immensitiesB · flameC · viesB · frameC · claimC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| But thou, of temples old, or altars new, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Standest alone--with nothing like to thee-- | 10 | /˘˘/·/˘··· |
| Worthiest of God, the holy and the true, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Since Zion's desolation, when that he | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Forsook his former city, what could be, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Of earthly structures, in his honour piled, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty, | 10 | ·····/·/˘˘ |
| Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled | 10 | //˘··/˘··· |
| In this eternal ark of worship undefiled. | 12 | ··˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not; | 10 | /˘·˘/·˘/·· |
| And why? it is not lessened; but thy mind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Expanded by the genius of the spot, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Has grown colossal, and can only find | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| A fit abode wherein appear enshrined | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘/ |
| Thy hopes of immortality; and thou | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined, | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| See thy God face to face, as thou dost now | 10 | ·········· |
| His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by his brow. | 13 | ·/˘·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thou movest--but increasing with th' advance, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| Like climbing some great Alp, which still doth rise, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Deceived by its gigantic elegance; | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Vastness which grows--but grows to harmonise-- | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| All musical in its immensities; | 9 | ·/˘˘····· |
| Rich marbles--richer painting--shrines where flame | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| The lamps of gold--and haughty dome which vies | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| In air with Earth's chief structures, though their frame | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Sits on the firm-set ground--and this the clouds must claim. | 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 5 [The emphasis is on the word "fit." The measure of "fitness" is the entirety of the enshrinement or embodiment of the mortal aspiration to put on immortality. The vastness and the sacredness of St. Peter's make for and effect this embodiment. So, too, the living temple "so defined," great with the greatness of holiness, may become the enshrinement and the embodiment of the Spirit of God.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 [This stanza may be paraphrased, but not construed. Apparently, the meaning is that as the eye becomes accustomed to the details and proportions of the building, the sense of its vastness increases. Your first impression was at fault, you had not begun to realize the almost inconceivable vastness of the structure. You had begun to climb the mountain, and the dazzling peak seemed to be close at your head, but as you ascend, it recedes. "Thou movest," but the building expands; "thou climbest," but the Alp increases in height. In both cases the eye has been deceived by gigantic elegance, by the proportion of parts to the whole.]
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.