Canto IV LXXII
And mounts in spray the skies, and thence againReturns in an unceasing shower, which round,With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain,Is an eternal April to the ground,Making it all one emerald. How profoundThe gulf! and how the giant elementFrom rock to rock leaps with delirious bound,Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rentWith his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent
To the broad column which rolls on, and showsMore like the fountain of an infant seaTorn from the womb of mountains by the throesOf a new world, than only thus to beParent of rivers, which flow gushingly,With many windings through the vale:--Look back!Lo! where it comes like an eternity,As if to sweep down all things in its track,Charming the eye with dread,--a matchless cataract,
Horribly beautiful! but on the verge,From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge,Like Hope upon a deathbed, and, unwornIts steady dyes, while all around is tornBy the distracted waters, bears sereneIts brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn:Resembling, mid the torture of the scene,Love watching Madness with unalterable mien.
Words in this poem
- womb n.
- The belly; the abdomen. [OE. wombe, wambe, AS. wamb, womb; akin to D. wam belly, OS. & OHG. wamba, G. wamme, wampe, Icel. vömb, Sw. v&mb, Dan. vom, Goth. wamba.]
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
- horribly adv.
- In a manner to excite horror; dreadfully; terribly.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- amidst prep.
- In the midst or middle of; surrounded or encompassed by; among. [OE. amidde, amiddes, on midden, AS. on middan, in the middle, fr. midde the middle. The s is an adverbial ending, originally marking the genitive; the t is a la]
- deathbed n.
- The bed in which a person dies; hence, the closing hours of life of one who dies by sickness or the like; the last sickness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV LXXII 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 LXXII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-lxxii.html, id L06602.
Form and metre
Canto IV LXXII 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 84%). 88% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 44% 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 againA · roundB · rainA · groundB · profoundB · elementC · boundB · rentC · ventC
- 2 ABABBCBCC showsA · seaB · throesA · beB · gushinglyB · backC · eternityB · trackC · cataractC
- 3 ABABBCBCC vergeA · mornB · surgeA · unwornB · tornB · sereneC · unshornB · sceneC · mienC
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 mounts in spray the skies, and thence again | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Returns in an unceasing shower, which round, | 10 | ˘/··˘/˘/·· |
| With its unemptied cloud of gentle rain, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Is an eternal April to the ground, | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Making it all one emerald. How profound | 10 | /˘···/˘·˘/ |
| The gulf! and how the giant element | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| From rock to rock leaps with delirious bound, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Crushing the cliffs, which, downward worn and rent | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| With his fierce footsteps, yield in chasms a fearful vent | 13 | ···/···/˘·/˘· |
| To the broad column which rolls on, and shows | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| More like the fountain of an infant sea | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Torn from the womb of mountains by the throes | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of a new world, than only thus to be | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Parent of rivers, which flow gushingly, | 10 | /˘·/˘··/˘˘ |
| With many windings through the vale:--Look back! | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Lo! where it comes like an eternity, | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| As if to sweep down all things in its track, | 10 | ·········· |
| Charming the eye with dread,--a matchless cataract, | 11 | /˘·····/˘/˘ |
| Horribly beautiful! but on the verge, | 10 | /˘˘/˘˘···· |
| From side to side, beneath the glittering morn, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge, | 11 | ·/˘·˘/·˘/˘· |
| Like Hope upon a deathbed, and, unworn | 10 | ·····/···· |
| Its steady dyes, while all around is torn | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| By the distracted waters, bears serene | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn: | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Resembling, mid the torture of the scene, | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Love watching Madness with unalterable mien. | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
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 9 I saw the Cascata del Marmore of Terni twice, at different periods--once from the summit of the precipice, and again from the valley below. The lower view is far to be preferred, if the traveller has time for one only; but in any point of view, either from above or below, it is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland put together: the Staubach, Reichenbach, Pisse Vache, fall of Arpenaz, etc., are rills in comparative appearance. Of the fall of Schaffhausen I cannot speak, not yet having seen it.
[The Falls of Reichenbach are at Rosenlaui, between Grindelwald and Meiringen; the Salanfe or Pisse-Vache descends into the valley of the Rhone near Martigny; the Nant d'Arpenaz falls into the Arve near Magland, on the road between Cluses and Sallanches.] - Stanza 3, line 3 Of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of iris, the reader will see a short account, in a note to Manfred.[Sec.1] The fall looks so much like "the Hell of waters," that Addison thought the descent alluded to by the gulf in which Alecto[Sec.2] plunged into the infernal regions. It is singular enough, that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be artificial--this of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little lake called Pie' di Lup. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe (Cicer., Epist. ad Attic., lib. iv. 15), and the ancient naturalists ["In lacu Velino nullo non die apparere arcus"] (Plin., Hist. Nat., lib. ii. cap. lxii.), amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the daily rainbows of the lake Velinus. A scholar of great name has devoted a treatise to this district alone. See Ald. Manut., De Reatina Urb Agroque, ap. Sallengre, Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom., 1735, tom. i. p.773, sq.
[The "Falls of the Anio," which passed over a wall built by Sixtus V., and plunged into the Grotto of Neptune, were greatly diminished in volume after an inundation which took place in 1826. The New Falls were formed in 1834.]
[[Sec.1] Manfred, act ii. sc. 1, note. This Iris is formed by the rays of the sun on the lower part of the Alpine torrents; it is exactly like a rainbow come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it: this effect lasts till noon.]
[[Sec.2] "This is the gulf through which Virgil's Alecto shoots herself into hell; for the very place, the great reputation of it, the fall of waters, the woods that encompass it, with the smoke and noise that arise from it, are all pointed at in the description ...
"'Est locus Italiae ... ... densis hunc frondibus atrum Urguet utrimque latus nemoris, medioque fragosus Dat sonitum saxis et torto vertice torrens. Hic specus horrendum et saevi spiracula Ditis Monstrantur, ruptoque ingens Acheronte vorago Pestiferas aperit fauces.' AEneid, vii. 563-570.
It was indeed the most proper place in the world for a Fury to make her exit ... and I believe every reader's imagination is pleased when he sees the angry Goddess thus sinking, as it were, in a tempest, and plunging herself into Hell, amidst such a scene of horror and confusion."--Remarks on several Parts of Italy, by Joseph Addison, Esq., 1761, pp. 100. 101.
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.