Canto IV XCIX
But France got drunk with blood to vomit crime,And fatal have her Saturnalia beenTo Freedom's cause, in every age and clime;Because the deadly days which we have seen,And vile Ambition, that built up betweenMan and his hopes an adamantine wall,And the base pageant last upon the scene,Are grown the pretext for the eternal thrallWhich nips Life's tree, and dooms man's worst--his second fall.
Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying,Streams like the thunder-storm AGAINST the wind;Thy trumpet-voice, though broken now and dying,The loudest still the tempest leaves behind;Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the rind,Chopped by the axe, looks rough and little worth,But the sap lasts,--and still the seed we findSown deep, even in the bosom of the North;So shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth.
There is a stern round tower of other days,Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone,Such as an army's baffled strength delays,Standing with half its battlements alone,And with two thousand years of ivy grown,The garland of eternity, where waveThe green leaves over all by time o'erthrown:What was this tower of strength? within its caveWhat treasure lay so locked, so hid?--A woman's grave.
Words in this poem
- clime n.
- A climate; a tract or region of the earth. See Climate. [L. clima. See Climate.]
- pageant n.
- A theatrical exhibition; a spectacle. [OE. pagent, pagen, originally, a movable scaffold or stage, hence, what was exhibited on it, fr. LL. pagina, akin to pangere to fasten; cf. L. pagina page, leaf]
- pretext n.
- Ostensible reason or motive assigned or assumed as a color or cover for the real reason or motive; pretense; disguise. [F. prétexte, L. praetextum, fr. praetextus, p. p. of praetexere to weave before, allege as an excuse; prae before + texere to weave. See Text.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV XCIX 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 XCIX, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-xcix.html, id L06611.
Form and metre
Canto IV XCIX 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 89%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 22% 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 crimeA · beenB · climeA · seenB · betweenB · wallC · sceneB · thrallC · fallC
- 2 ABABBCBCC flyingA · windB · dyingA · behindB · rindB · worthC · findB · northC · forthC
- 3 ABABBCBCC daysA · stoneB · delaysA · aloneB · grownB · waveC · o'erthrownB · caveC · graveC
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 France got drunk with blood to vomit crime, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And fatal have her Saturnalia been | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| To Freedom's cause, in every age and clime; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Because the deadly days which we have seen, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And vile Ambition, that built up between | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Man and his hopes an adamantine wall, | 10 | ·········· |
| And the base pageant last upon the scene, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Are grown the pretext for the eternal thrall | 11 | ···/···˘/˘· |
| Which nips Life's tree, and dooms man's worst--his second fall. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| Streams like the thunder-storm AGAINST the wind; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Thy trumpet-voice, though broken now and dying, | 11 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘ |
| The loudest still the tempest leaves behind; | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Thy tree hath lost its blossoms, and the rind, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Chopped by the axe, looks rough and little worth, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| But the sap lasts,--and still the seed we find | 10 | ·········· |
| Sown deep, even in the bosom of the North; | 10 | ··/··/˘··· |
| So shall a better spring less bitter fruit bring forth. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘··· |
| There is a stern round tower of other days, | 10 | ·····/·/˘· |
| Firm as a fortress, with its fence of stone, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Such as an army's baffled strength delays, | 10 | ···/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Standing with half its battlements alone, | 10 | /˘···/˘˘˘/ |
| And with two thousand years of ivy grown, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The garland of eternity, where wave | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| The green leaves over all by time o'erthrown: | 10 | ·········· |
| What was this tower of strength? within its cave | 10 | ···/······ |
| What treasure lay so locked, so hid?--A woman's grave. | 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 7 [By the "base pageant" Byron refers to the Congress of Vienna (September, 1815); the "Holy Alliance" (September 26), into which the Duke of Wellington would not enter; and the Second Treaty of Paris, November 20, 1815.]
- Stanza 1, line 9 [Compare Shelley's Hellas: Poems, 1895, ii. 358--
"O Slavery! thou frost of the world's prime, Killing its flowers, and leaving its thorns bare!"] - Stanza 2, line 2 [Shelley chose the first two lines of this stanza as the motto for his Ode to Liberty.]
- Stanza 3, line 1 Alluding to the tomb of Cecilia Metella, called Capo di Bove. [Four words, and two initials, compose the whole of the transcription which, whatever was its ancient position, is now placed in front of this towering sepulchre: "CAECILIAE. Q. CRETICI. F. METELLAE. CRASSI."
"The Savelli family were in possession of the fortress in 1312, and the German army of Henry VII. marched from Rome, attacked, took, and burnt it, but were unable to make themselves, by force, masters of the citadel--that is, the tomb." The "fence of stone" refers to the quadrangular basement of concrete, on which the circular tower rests. The tower was originally coated with marble, which was stripped off for the purpose of making lime. The work of destruction is said to have been carried out during the interval between Poggio's (see his De Fort. Var., ap. Sall., Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom., 1735, i. 501, sq.) first and second visits to Rome. (See Hobhouse's Hist. Illust., pp. 202, 203; Handbook for Rome, p. 360.)]
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