Canto IV VI
But unto us she hath a spell beyondHer name in story, and her long arrayOf mighty shadows, whose dim forms despondAbove the dogeless city's vanished sway;Ours is a trophy which will not decayWith the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor,And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away--The keystones of the arch! though all were o'er,For us repeopled were the solitary shore.
The beings of the mind are not of clay;Essentially immortal, they createAnd multiply in us a brighter rayAnd more beloved existence: that which FateProhibits to dull life, in this our stateOf mortal bondage, by these spirits supplied,First exiles, then replaces what we hate;Watering the heart whose early flowers have died,And with a fresher growth replenishing the void.
Such is the refuge of our youth and age,The first from Hope, the last from Vacancy;And this worn feeling peoples many a page,And, may be, that which grows beneath mine eye:Yet there are things whose strong realityOutshines our fairy-land; in shape and huesMore beautiful than our fantastic sky,And the strange constellations which the MuseO'er her wild universe is skilful to diffuse:
Words in this poem
- despond v. i.
- To give up, the will, courage, or spirit; to be thoroughly disheartened; to lose all courage; to become dispirited or depressed; to take an unhopeful view. [L. despond, desponsum, to promise away, promise in marriage, give up, to lose (courage); de- + spond to promise solemnly. See Sponsor.]
- dogeless a.
- Without a doge.
- trophy n.
- A sign or memorial of a victory raised on the field of battle, or, in case of a naval victory, on the nearest land. Sometimes trophies were erected in the chief city of the conquered people. [F. trophée (cf. It. & Sp. trofeo), L. tropaeum, trophaeum, Gr. Trope.]
- vacancy n.
- The quality or state of being vacant; emptiness; hence, freedom from employment; intermission; leisure; idleness; listlessness. [Cf. F. vacance.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV VI 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 VI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-vi.html, id L06580.
Form and metre
Canto IV VI 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%). 90% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 41% 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 beyondA · arrayB · despondA · swayB · decayB · moorC · awayB · o'erC · shoreC
- 2 ABABBCBCC clayA · createB · rayA · fateB · stateB · suppliedC · hateB · diedC · voidC
- 3 ABABBCBCC ageA · vacancyB · pageA · eyeB · realityB · huesC · skyB · museC · diffuseC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| But unto us she hath a spell beyond | 10 | ·········· |
| Her name in story, and her long array | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond | 10 | ·/˘/····˘/ |
| Above the dogeless city's vanished sway; | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Ours is a trophy which will not decay | 10 | /··/˘···˘/ |
| With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor, | 9 | ····/···· |
| And Pierre, cannot be swept or worn away-- | 11 | ·˘/˘/····˘/ |
| The keystones of the arch! though all were o'er, | 10 | ·/········ |
| For us repeopled were the solitary shore. | 11 | ······/˘·˘· |
| The beings of the mind are not of clay; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Essentially immortal, they create | 10 | ˘/˘˘˘/˘·˘/ |
| And multiply in us a brighter ray | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And more beloved existence: that which Fate | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘··· |
| Prohibits to dull life, in this our state | 10 | ˘/˘·····/· |
| Of mortal bondage, by these spirits supplied, | 11 | ·/˘/˘··/˘˘/ |
| First exiles, then replaces what we hate; | 10 | ·/··˘/˘··· |
| Watering the heart whose early flowers have died, | 10 | /˘···/˘/·· |
| And with a fresher growth replenishing the void. | 11 | ···/˘·˘/˘·· |
| Such is the refuge of our youth and age, | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| The first from Hope, the last from Vacancy; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| And this worn feeling peoples many a page, | 10 | ···/˘/˘/·· |
| And, may be, that which grows beneath mine eye: | 10 | ·········· |
| Yet there are things whose strong reality | 10 | ······˘/˘˘ |
| Outshines our fairy-land; in shape and hues | 10 | /·//˘····· |
| More beautiful than our fantastic sky, | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| And the strange constellations which the Muse | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| O'er her wild universe is skilful to diffuse: | 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 6 [The Rialto, or Rivo alto, "the middle group of islands between the shore and the mainland," on the left of the Grand Canal, was the site of the original city, and till the sixteenth century its formal and legal designation. The Exchange, or Banco Giro, was held in the piazza, opposite the church of San Giacomo, which stands at the head of the canal to the north of the Ponto di Rialto. It was on the Rialto that Antonio rated Shylock about his "usances." "What news on the Rialto?" asks Solanio (Merchant of Venice, act i. sc. 3, line 102; act iii. sc. 1, line 1). Byron uses the word symbolically for Venetian commerce.]
- Stanza 1, line 7 [Pierre is the hero of Otway's Venice Preserved. Shylock and the Moor stand where they did, but what of Pierre? If the name of Otway--"master of the tragic art"--and the title of his masterpiece--Venice Preserved, or The Plot Discovered (first played 1682)--are not wholly forgotten, Pierre and Monimia and Belvidera have "decayed," and are memorable chiefly as favourite characters of great actors and actresses. Genest notes twenty revivals of the Venice Preserved, which was played as late as October 27, 1837, when Macready played "Pierre," and Phelps "Jaffier." "No play that I know," says Hartley Coleridge (Essays, 1851, ii. 56), "gains so much by acting as Venice Preserved.... Miss O'Neill, I well remember, made me weep with Belvidera; but she would have done the same had she spoken in an unknown tongue." Byron, who professed to be a "great admirer of Otway," in a letter to Hodgson, August 22, 1811 (Letters, 1898, i. 339, note 1), alludes to some lines from Venice Preserved (act ii. sc. 3), which seem to have taken his fancy. Two lines spoken by Belvidera (act ii.), if less humorous, are more poetical--
"Oh, the day Too soon will break, and wake us to our sorrow; Come, come to bed, and bid thy cares Good night!"] - Stanza 2, line 4 [Compare The Dream, i.--
"The mind can make Substance, and people planets of its own With beings brighter than have been, and give A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh."
The ideal personages of the poet's creations have the promise of immortality. The ideal forms which people his imagination transfigure and supplant the dull and grievous realities of his mortal being and circumstance; but there are "things" more radiant, more enchanting still, the "strong realities" of the heart and soul--hope, love, joy. But they pass! We wake, and lo! it was a dream.] - Stanza 3, line 2 ["In youth I wrote because my mind was full, And now because I feel it growing dull." Don Juan, Canto XIV. stanza x.
In youth the poet takes refuge, in the ideal world, from the crowd and pressure of blissful possibilities; and in age, when hope is beyond hope, he peoples the solitude with beings of the mind.]
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.