Canto IV CLXXXVI
And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joyOf youthful sports was on thy breast to beBorne like thy bubbles, onward: from a boyI wantoned with thy breakers--they to meWere a delight; and if the freshening seaMade them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear,For I was as it were a child of thee,And trusted to thy billows far and near,And laid my hand upon thy mane--as I do here.
My task is done--my song hath ceased--my themeHas died into an echo; it is fitThe spell should break of this protracted dream.The torch shall be extinguished which hath litMy midnight lamp--and what is writ, is writ--Would it were worthier! but I am not nowThat which I have been--and my visions flitLess palpably before me--and the glowWhich in my spirit dwelt is fluttering, faint, and low.
Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been--A sound which makes us linger; yet, farewell!Ye, who have traced the Pilgrim to the sceneWhich is his last, if in your memories dwellA thought which once was his, if on ye swellA single recollection, not in vainHe wore his sandal-shoon and scallop shell;Farewell! with HIM alone may rest the pain,If such there were--with YOU, the moral of his strain.
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,]
- flit a.
- Nimble; quick; swift. See Fleet.
- 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 CLXXXVI 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 CLXXXVI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-clxxxvi.html, id L06640.
Form and metre
Canto IV CLXXXVI 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%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 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 joyA · beB · boyA · meB · seaB · fearC · theeB · nearC · hereC
- 2 ABABBCBCC themeA · fitB · dreamA · litB · writB · nowC · flitB · glowC · lowC
- 3 ABABBCBCC beenA · farewellB · sceneA · dwellB · swellB · vainC · shellB · painC · strainC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Borne like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I wantoned with thy breakers--they to me | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Were a delight; and if the freshening sea | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| Made them a terror--'twas a pleasing fear, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| For I was as it were a child of thee, | 10 | ·········· |
| And trusted to thy billows far and near, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And laid my hand upon thy mane--as I do here. | 12 | ············ |
| My task is done--my song hath ceased--my theme | 10 | ·········· |
| Has died into an echo; it is fit | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The spell should break of this protracted dream. | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| The torch shall be extinguished which hath lit | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| My midnight lamp--and what is writ, is writ-- | 10 | ·/········ |
| Would it were worthier! but I am not now | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| That which I have been--and my visions flit | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Less palpably before me--and the glow | 10 | ·/˘˘······ |
| Which in my spirit dwelt is fluttering, faint, and low. | 11 | ···/··/˘··· |
| Farewell! a word that must be, and hath been-- | 10 | ·/········ |
| A sound which makes us linger; yet, farewell! | 10 | ·····/˘··/ |
| Ye, who have traced the Pilgrim to the scene | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Which is his last, if in your memories dwell | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| A thought which once was his, if on ye swell | 10 | ·········· |
| A single recollection, not in vain | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| He wore his sandal-shoon and scallop shell; | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Farewell! with HIM alone may rest the pain, | 10 | ·/··˘/···· |
| If such there were--with YOU, the moral of his strain. | 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 3 ["While at Aberdeen, he used often to steal from home unperceived; sometimes he would find his way to the seaside" (Life, p. 9). For an account of his feats in swimming, see Letters, 1898, i. 263, note 1; and letter to Murray, February 21, 1821. See, too, for a "more perilous, but less celebrated passage" (from Old Lisbon to Belem Castle), Travels in Albania, ii. 195.]
- Stanza 1, line 9 ["It was a thought worthy of the great spirit of Byron, after exhibiting to us his Pilgrim amidst all the most striking scenes of earthly grandeur and earthly decay ... to conduct him and us at last to the borders of 'the Great Deep.' ... The image of the wanderer may well be associated, for a time, with the rock of Calpe, the shattered temples of Athens, or the gigantic fragments of Rome; but when we wish to think of this dark personification as of a thing which is, where can we so well imagine him to have his daily haunt as by the roaring of the waves? It was thus that Homer represented Achilles in his moments of ungovernable and inconsolable grief for the loss of Patroclus. It was thus he chose to depict the paternal despair of Chryseus--
"[Greek: Be/ d' a)ke/on para\ thi~na polyphloi/sboio thala/sses]"
Note by Professor Wilson, ed. 1837.] - Stanza 3, line 9 At end--
Laus Deo! Byron. July 19th, 1817. La Mira, near Venice.
Laus Deo! Byron. La Mira, near Venice, Sept. 3, 1817.
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