Canto IV CLXXI
Peasants bring forth in safety.--Can it be,O thou that wert so happy, so adored!Those who weep not for kings shall weep for thee,And Freedom's heart, grown heavy, cease to hoardHer many griefs for One; for she had pouredHer orisons for thee, and o'er thy headBeheld her Iris.--Thou, too, lonely lord,And desolate consort--vainly wert thou wed!The husband of a year! the father of the dead!
Of sackcloth was thy wedding garment made:Thy bridal's fruit is ashes; in the dustThe fair-haired Daughter of the Isles is laid,The love of millions! How we did entrustFuturity to her! and, though it mustDarken above our bones, yet fondly deemedOur children should obey her child, and blessedHer and her hoped-for seed, whose promise seemedLike star to shepherd's eyes; 'twas but a meteor beamed.
Woe unto us, not her; for she sleeps well:The fickle reek of popular breath, the tongueOf hollow counsel, the false oracle,Which from the birth of monarchy hath rungIts knell in princely ears, till the o'erstrungNations have armed in madness, the strange fateWhich tumbles mightiest sovereigns, and hath flungAgainst their blind omnipotence a weightWithin the opposing scale, which crushes soon or late,--
Words in this poem
- 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,]
- sackcloth n.
- Linen or cotton cloth such a sacks are made of; coarse cloth; anciently, a cloth or garment worn in mourning, distress, mortification, or penitence.
- futurity n.
- State of being that is yet to come; future state.
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- beamed a.
- Furnished with beams, as the head of a stag.
- reek n.
- A rick. B. Jonson.
- oracle v. i.
- To utter oracles.
- rung n.
- A floor timber in a ship. [OE. ronge, AS. hrung, a staff, rod, pole; akin to G. runge a short, thick piece of iron or wood, OD. ronghe a prop, support, Icel. röng a rib in a ship, Goth. H]
- omnipotence n.
- The state of being omnipotent; almighty power; hence, one who is omnipotent; the Deity. [L. omnipotentia: cf.F. omnipotence.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV CLXXI 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 CLXXI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-clxxi.html, id L06635.
Form and metre
Canto IV CLXXI 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%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 56% 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 beA · adoredB · theeA · hoardB · pouredB · headC · lordB · wedC · deadC
- 2 ABABBCBCC madeA · dustB · laidA · entrustB · mustB · deemedC · blessedB · seemedC · beamedC
- 3 ABABBCBCC wellA · tongueB · oracleA · rungB · o'erstrungB · fateC · flungB · weightC · lateC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Peasants bring forth in safety.--Can it be, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| O thou that wert so happy, so adored! | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Those who weep not for kings shall weep for thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| And Freedom's heart, grown heavy, cease to hoard | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Her many griefs for One; for she had poured | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Her orisons for thee, and o'er thy head | 10 | ·········· |
| Beheld her Iris.--Thou, too, lonely lord, | 10 | ˘/·/˘··/˘· |
| And desolate consort--vainly wert thou wed! | 10 | ·/˘˘//˘··· |
| The husband of a year! the father of the dead! | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| Of sackcloth was thy wedding garment made: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Thy bridal's fruit is ashes; in the dust | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The fair-haired Daughter of the Isles is laid, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The love of millions! How we did entrust | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Futurity to her! and, though it must | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| Darken above our bones, yet fondly deemed | 10 | /˘··/··/˘· |
| Our children should obey her child, and blessed | 10 | //˘·˘/···· |
| Her and her hoped-for seed, whose promise seemed | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Like star to shepherd's eyes; 'twas but a meteor beamed. | 12 | ···/˘····/˘· |
| Woe unto us, not her; for she sleeps well: | 10 | ·········· |
| The fickle reek of popular breath, the tongue | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of hollow counsel, the false oracle, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Which from the birth of monarchy hath rung | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Its knell in princely ears, till the o'erstrung | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nations have armed in madness, the strange fate | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Which tumbles mightiest sovereigns, and hath flung | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Against their blind omnipotence a weight | 10 | ····˘/˘˘·· |
| Within the opposing scale, which crushes soon or late,-- | 13 | ···˘/˘··/˘··· |
Notes from the edition 5
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 [Compare Canto III. stanza xxxiv. lines 6, 7--
"Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore, All ashes to the taste."] - Stanza 2, line 9 [Mr. Tozer traces the star simile to Homer (Iliad, viii. 559)--[Greek: Pa/nta de/ t' ei)/detai a)/stra, ge/gethe de/ te phre/na poime/n]]
- Stanza 3, line 1 [Compare Macbeth, act iii. sc. 2, lines 22, 23--
"Duncan is in his grave; After life's fitful fever he sleeps well."] - Stanza 3, line 2 [Compare Coriolanus, act iii. sc. 3, lines 121, 122--
"You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens."] - Stanza 3, line 7 Mary died on the scaffold; Elizabeth, of a broken heart; Charles V., a hermit; Louis XIV., a bankrupt in means and glory; Cromwell, of anxiety; and, "the greatest is behind," Napoleon lives a prisoner. To these sovereigns a long but superfluous list might be added of names equally illustrious and unhappy.
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.