Canto IV XCVI
And thus they plod in sluggish misery,Rotting from sire to son, and age to age,Proud of their trampled nature, and so die,Bequeathing their hereditary rageTo the new race of inborn slaves, who wageWar for their chains, and rather than be free,Bleed gladiator-like, and still engageWithin the same arena where they seeTheir fellows fall before, like leaves of the same tree.
I speak not of men's creeds--they rest betweenMan and his Maker--but of things allowed,Averred, and known,--and daily, hourly seen--The yoke that is upon us doubly bowed,And the intent of tyranny avowed,The edict of Earth's rulers, who are grownThe apes of him who humbled once the proud,And shook them from their slumbers on the throne;Too glorious, were this all his mighty arm had done.
Can tyrants but by tyrants conquered be,And Freedom find no champion and no childSuch as Columbia saw arise when sheSprung forth a Pallas, armed and undefiled?Or must such minds be nourished in the wild,Deep in the unpruned forest, midst the roarOf cataracts, where nursing nature smiledOn infant Washington? Has Earth no moreSuch seeds within her breast, or Europe no such shore?
Words in this poem
- plod v. i.
- To travel slowly but steadily; to trudge. [Gf. Gael. plod a clod, a pool; also, to strike or pelt with a clod or clods.]
- sire n.
- A lord, master, or other person in authority. See Sir. [F. sire, originally, an older person. See Sir.]
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- columbia n.
- America; the United States; -- a poetical appellation given in honor of Columbus, the discoverer. Dr. T. Dwight.
- pallas n.
- Pallas Athene, the Grecian goddess of wisdom, called also Athene, and identified, at a later period, with the Roman Minerva.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV XCVI 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 XCVI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-xcvi.html, id L06610.
Form and metre
Canto IV XCVI 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. 1 line ends 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 miseryA · ageB · dieA · rageB · wageB · freeC · engageB · seeC · treeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC betweenA · allowedB · seenA · bowedB · avowedB · grownC · proudB · throneC · doneC
- 3 ABABBCBCC beA · childB · sheA · undefiledB · wildB · roarC · smiledB · moreC · shoreC
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 thus they plod in sluggish misery, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Rotting from sire to son, and age to age, | 10 | /˘·/······ |
| Proud of their trampled nature, and so die, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Bequeathing their hereditary rage | 10 | ˘/˘·˘/˘·˘· |
| To the new race of inborn slaves, who wage | 10 | ·····/···· |
| War for their chains, and rather than be free, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Bleed gladiator-like, and still engage | 10 | ·/˘·˘···˘/ |
| Within the same arena where they see | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Their fellows fall before, like leaves of the same tree. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| I speak not of men's creeds--they rest between | 10 | ·········· |
| Man and his Maker--but of things allowed, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Averred, and known,--and daily, hourly seen-- | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
| The yoke that is upon us doubly bowed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the intent of tyranny avowed, | 10 | ··˘/·/˘˘˘/ |
| The edict of Earth's rulers, who are grown | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| The apes of him who humbled once the proud, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And shook them from their slumbers on the throne; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Too glorious, were this all his mighty arm had done. | 12 | ·/˘····/˘··· |
| Can tyrants but by tyrants conquered be, | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| And Freedom find no champion and no child | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Such as Columbia saw arise when she | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/·· |
| Sprung forth a Pallas, armed and undefiled? | 10 | ·········· |
| Or must such minds be nourished in the wild, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Deep in the unpruned forest, midst the roar | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Of cataracts, where nursing nature smiled | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| On infant Washington? Has Earth no more | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘···· |
| Such seeds within her breast, or Europe no such shore? | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
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 1, line 2 [Compare As You Like It, act ii. sc. 7, lines 26-28--
"And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot; And thereby hangs a tale."] - Stanza 3, line 2 [In his speech On the Continuance of the War with France, which Pitt delivered in the House of Commons, February 17, 1800, he described Napoleon as "the child and champion of Jacobinism." At least the phrase occurs in the report which Coleridge prepared for the Morning Post of February 18, 1800, and it appears in the later edition in the Collection of Pitt's speeches. "It does not occur in the speech as reported by the Times." It is curious that in the jottings which Coleridge, Parliamentary reporter pro hac vice, scrawled in pencil in his note-book, the phrase appears as "the nursling and champion of Jacobinism;" and it is possible that the alternative of the more rhetorical but less forcible "child" was the poet's handiwork. It became a current phrase, and Coleridge more than once reverts to it in the articles which he contributed to the Morning Post in 1802. (See Essays on His Own Times, ii. 293, and iii. 1009-1019; and Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1895, i. 327, note.)]
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