Canto IV CLXXX
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,There is a rapture on the lonely shore,There is society where none intrudes,By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:I love not Man the less, but Nature more,From these our interviews, in which I stealFrom all I may be, or have been before,To mingle with the Universe, and feelWhat I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;Man marks the earth with ruin--his controlStops with the shore;--upon the watery plainThe wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remainA shadow of man's ravage, save his own,When for a moment, like a drop of rain,He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.
His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fieldsAre not a spoil for him,--thou dost ariseAnd shake him from thee; the vile strength he wieldsFor earth's destruction thou dost all despise,Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,And send'st him, shivering in thy playful sprayAnd howling, to his gods, where haply liesHis petty hope in some near port or bay,And dashest him again to earth:--there let him lay.
Words in this poem
- pathless a.
- Having no beaten path or way; untrodden; impenetrable; as, pathless woods.
- despise v. t.
- To look down upon with disfavor or contempt; to contemn; to scorn; to disdain; to have a low opinion or contemptuous dislike of. [OF. despis-, in some forms of despire to despise, fr. L. despicere, despectum, to look down upon, despise; de- + spicere, specere, to look. See Spy, and cf. Des]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV CLXXX 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 CLXXX, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-clxxx.html, id L06638.
Form and metre
Canto IV CLXXX 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. 37% 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 woodsA · shoreB · intrudesA · roarB · moreB · stealC · beforeB · feelC · concealC
- 2 ABABBCBCC rollA · vainB · controlA · plainB · remainB · ownC · rainB · groanC · unknownC
- 3 ABABBCBCC fieldsA · ariseB · wieldsA · despiseB · skiesB · sprayC · liesB · bayC · layC
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 pleasure in the pathless woods, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There is a rapture on the lonely shore, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There is society where none intrudes, | 10 | ··˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| I love not Man the less, but Nature more, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| From these our interviews, in which I steal | 10 | ··//˘····· |
| From all I may be, or have been before, | 10 | ·········· |
| To mingle with the Universe, and feel | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal. | 12 | ····˘/·/˘·˘/ |
| Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll! | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Man marks the earth with ruin--his control | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain | 10 | ········˘/ |
| A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| When for a moment, like a drop of rain, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. | 12 | ··········˘/ |
| His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields | 10 | ·········· |
| Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields | 10 | ·········· |
| For earth's destruction thou dost all despise, | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies, | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And howling, to his gods, where haply lies | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| His petty hope in some near port or bay, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And dashest him again to earth:--there let him lay. | 12 | ·/˘·˘/······ |
Notes from the edition 3
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 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza lxxii. lines 8, 9; and Epistle to Augusta, stanza xi.]
- Stanza 3, line 5 [Compare Ps. cvii. 26, "They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths."]
- Stanza 3, line 9 ["Lay" is followed by a plainly marked period in both the MSS. (M. and D.) of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold. For instances of the same error, compare "The Adieu," stanza 10, line 4, and ["Pignus Amoris"], stanza 3, line 3 (Poetical Works, 1898, i. 232, note, and p. 241). It is to be remarked that Hobhouse, who pencilled a few corrections on the margin of his own MS. copy, makes no comment on this famous solecism. The fact is that Byron wrote as he spoke, with the "careless and negligent ease of a man of quality," and either did not know that "lay" was not an intransitive verb or regarded himself as "super grammaticam."]
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