Canto IV CLXXIV
These might have been her destiny; but no,Our hearts deny it: and so young, so fair,Good without effort, great without a foe;But now a bride and mother--and now THERE!How many ties did that stern moment tear!From thy Sire's to his humblest subject's breastIs linked the electric chain of that despair,Whose shock was as an earthquake's, and oppressedThe land which loved thee so, that none could love thee best.
Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hillsSo far, that the uprooting wind which tearsThe oak from his foundation, and which spillsThe ocean o'er its boundary, and bearsIts foam against the skies, reluctant sparesThe oval mirror of thy glassy lake;And, calm as cherished hate, its surface wearsA deep cold settled aspect nought can shake,All coiled into itself and round, as sleeps the snake.
And near Albano's scarce divided wavesShine from a sister valley;--and afarThe Tiber winds, and the broad ocean lavesThe Latian coast where sprung the Epic war,'Arms and the Man,' whose reascending starRose o'er an empire,--but beneath thy rightTully reposed from Rome;--and where yon barOf girdling mountains intercepts the sight,The Sabine farm was tilled, the weary bard's delight.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
- latian a.
- Belonging, or relating, to Latium, a country of ancient Italy.
- reposed a.
- Composed; calm; tranquil; at rest.
- sabine a.
- Of or pertaining to the ancient Sabines, a people of Italy. [L. Sabinus.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV CLXXIV 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 CLXXIV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-clxxiv.html, id L06636.
Form and metre
Canto IV CLXXIV 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 87%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 52% 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 noA · fairB · foeA · thereB · tearB · breastC · despairB · oppressedC · bestC
- 2 ABABBCBCC hillsA · tearsB · spillsA · bearsB · sparesB · lakeC · wearsB · shakeC · snakeC
- 3 ABABBCBCC wavesA · afarB · lavesA · warB · starB · rightC · barB · sightC · delightC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| These might have been her destiny; but no, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| Our hearts deny it: and so young, so fair, | 10 | /·˘/······ |
| Good without effort, great without a foe; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| But now a bride and mother--and now THERE! | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| How many ties did that stern moment tear! | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| From thy Sire's to his humblest subject's breast | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Is linked the electric chain of that despair, | 11 | ···˘/˘···˘/ |
| Whose shock was as an earthquake's, and oppressed | 10 | ·····/··˘/ |
| The land which loved thee so, that none could love thee best. | 12 | ············ |
| Lo, Nemi! navelled in the woody hills | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| So far, that the uprooting wind which tears | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The oak from his foundation, and which spills | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| The ocean o'er its boundary, and bears | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘·· |
| Its foam against the skies, reluctant spares | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The oval mirror of thy glassy lake; | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And, calm as cherished hate, its surface wears | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| A deep cold settled aspect nought can shake, | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| All coiled into itself and round, as sleeps the snake. | 12 | ····˘/······ |
| And near Albano's scarce divided waves | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Shine from a sister valley;--and afar | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| The Tiber winds, and the broad ocean laves | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The Latian coast where sprung the Epic war, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| 'Arms and the Man,' whose reascending star | 9 | ········· |
| Rose o'er an empire,--but beneath thy right | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Tully reposed from Rome;--and where yon bar | 10 | /˘/······· |
| Of girdling mountains intercepts the sight, | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| The Sabine farm was tilled, the weary bard's delight. | 12 | ·˘/····/˘·˘/ |
Notes from the edition 4
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 8 [The simile of the "earthquake" was repeated in a letter to Murray, dated December 3, 1817: "The death of the Princess Charlotte has been a shock even here, and must have been an earthquake at home.... The death of this poor Girl is melancholy in every respect, dying at twenty or so, in childbed--of a boy too, a present princess and future queen, and just as she began to be happy, and to enjoy herself, and the hopes which she inspired."]
- Stanza 2, line 1 The village of Nemi was near the Arician retreat of Egeria, and, from the shades which embosomed the temple of Diana, has preserved to this day its distinctive appellation of The Grove. Nemi is but an evening's ride from the comfortable inn of Albano.
[The basin of the Lago di Nemi is the crater of an extinct volcano. Hence the comparison to a coiled snake. Its steel-blue waters are unruffled by the wind which lashes the neighbouring ocean into fury. Hence its likeness to "cherished hate," as contrasted with "generous and active wrath."] - Stanza 3, line 2 The whole declivity of the Alban hill is of unrivalled beauty, and from the convent on the highest point, which has succeeded to the temple of the Latian Jupiter, the prospect embraces all the objects alluded to in the cited stanza; the Mediterranean; the whole scene of the latter half of the AEneid, and the coast from beyond the mouth of the Tiber to the headland of Circaeum and the Cape of Terracina.
The site of Cicero's villa may be supposed either at the Grotta Ferrata, or at the Tusculum of Prince Lucien Buonaparte.
The former was thought some years ago the actual site, as may be seen from Myddleton's Life of Cicero. At present it has lost something of its credit, except for the Domenichinos. Nine monks of the Greek order live there, and the adjoining villa is a cardinal's summer-house. The other villa, called Rufinella, is on the summit of the hill above Frascati, and many rich remains of Tusculum have been found there, besides seventy-two statues of different merit and preservation, and seven busts.
From the same eminence are seen the Sabine hills, embosomed in which lies the long valley of Rustica. There are several circumstances which tend to establish the identity of this valley with the "Ustica" of Horace; and it seems possible that the mosaic pavement which the peasants uncover by throwing up the earth of a vineyard may belong to his villa. Rustica is pronounced short, not according to our stress upon--"Usticae cubantis." It is more rational to think that we are wrong, than that the inhabitants of this secluded valley have changed their tone in this word. The addition of the consonant prefixed is nothing; yet it is necessary to be aware that Rustica may be a modern name which the peasants may have caught from the antiquaries.
The villa, or the mosaic, is in a vineyard on a knoll covered with chestnut trees. A stream runs down the valley; and although it is not true, as said in the guide books, that this stream is called Licenza, yet there is a village on a rock at the head of the valley, which is so denominated, and which may have taken its name from the Digentia. Licenza contains seven hundred inhabitants. On a peak a little way beyond is Civitella, containing three hundred. On the banks of the Anio, a little before you turn up into Valle Rustica, to the left, about an hour from the villa, is a town called Vicovaro, another favourable coincidence with the Varia of the poet. … - Stanza 3, line 6 [The spectator is supposed to be looking towards the Mediterranean from the summit of Monte Cavo. Tusculum, where "Tully reposed," lies to the north of the Alban Hills, on the right; but, as Byron points to a spot "beneath thy right," he probably refers to the traditional site of the Villa Ciceronis at Grotta Ferrata, and not to an alternative site at the Villa Ruffinella, between Frascati and the ruins of Tusculum. Horace's Sabine farm, on the bank of Digentia's "ice-cold rivulet," is more than twenty miles to the north-east of the Alban Hills. The mountains to the south and east of Tusculum intercept the view of the valley of the Licenza (Digentia), where the "farm was tilled." Childe Harold had bidden farewell to Horace, once for all, "upon Soracte's ridge," but recalls him to keep company with Virgil and Cicero.]
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