Canto IV XLV
Then mightst thou more appal; or, less desired,Be homely and be peaceful, undeploredFor thy destructive charms; then, still untired,Would not be seen the armed torrents pouredDown the deep Alps; nor would the hostile hordeOf many-nationed spoilers from the PoQuaff blood and water; nor the stranger's swordBe thy sad weapon of defence, and so,Victor or vanquished, thou the slave of friend or foe.
Wandering in youth, I traced the path of him,The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind,The friend of Tully: as my bark did skimThe bright blue waters with a fanning wind,Came Megara before me, and behindAEgina lay, Piraeus on the right,And Corinth on the left; I lay reclinedAlong the prow, and saw all these uniteIn ruin, even as he had seen the desolate sight;
For time hath not rebuilt them, but uprearedBarbaric dwellings on their shattered site,Which only make more mourned and more endearedThe few last rays of their far-scattered light,And the crushed relics of their vanished might.The Roman saw these tombs in his own age,These sepulchres of cities, which exciteSad wonder, and his yet surviving pageThe moral lesson bears, drawn from such pilgrimage.
Words in this poem
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
- horde n.
- A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude. Thomson. [F. horde (cf. G. horde), fr. Turk. ord, ordi, camp; of Tartar origin.]
- quaff v. t.
- To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts. [For quach, fr. Gael. & Ir. cuach a drinking cup; cf. L. caucus a drinking vessel. Cf. Quaigh.]
- defence n.
- The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger. [F. défense, OF. defense, fem., defens, masc., fr. L. defensa (cf. Fence.]
- reclined a.
- Falling or turned downward; reclinate.
- barbaric a.
- Of, or from, barbarian nations; foreign; -- often with reference to barbarous nations of east. [L. barbaricus foreign, barbaric, Gr. .]
- surviving a.
- Remaining alive; yet living or existing; as, surviving friends; surviving customs.
- pilgrimage n.
- The journey of a pilgrim; a long journey; especially, a journey to a shrine or other sacred place. Fig., the journey of human life. [OE. pilgrimage, pelgrinage; cf. F. pèlerinage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV XLV 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 XLV, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-xlv.html, id L06593.
Form and metre
Canto IV XLV 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. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 48% 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 desiredA · undeploredB · untiredA · pouredB · hordeB · poC · swordB · soC · foeC
- 2 ABABBCBCC himA · mindB · skimA · windB · behindB · rightC · reclinedB · uniteC · sightC
- 3 ABABBCBCC uprearedA · siteB · endearedA · lightB · mightB · ageC · exciteB · pageC · pilgrimageC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Then mightst thou more appal; or, less desired, | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| Be homely and be peaceful, undeplored | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| For thy destructive charms; then, still untired, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Would not be seen the armed torrents poured | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| Down the deep Alps; nor would the hostile horde | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Of many-nationed spoilers from the Po | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Quaff blood and water; nor the stranger's sword | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Be thy sad weapon of defence, and so, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Victor or vanquished, thou the slave of friend or foe. | 12 | /˘·/˘······· |
| Wandering in youth, I traced the path of him, | 10 | /˘········ |
| The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| The friend of Tully: as my bark did skim | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| The bright blue waters with a fanning wind, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Came Megara before me, and behind | 10 | ·········· |
| AEgina lay, Piraeus on the right, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| And Corinth on the left; I lay reclined | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| Along the prow, and saw all these unite | 10 | ˘/······/· |
| In ruin, even as he had seen the desolate sight; | 11 | ·//·····/˘· |
| For time hath not rebuilt them, but upreared | 10 | ····˘/···· |
| Barbaric dwellings on their shattered site, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Which only make more mourned and more endeared | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| The few last rays of their far-scattered light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| And the crushed relics of their vanished might. | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| The Roman saw these tombs in his own age, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| These sepulchres of cities, which excite | 9 | ····/˘·˘/ |
| Sad wonder, and his yet surviving page | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| The moral lesson bears, drawn from such pilgrimage. | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
Notes from the edition 1
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 2 The celebrated letter of Servius Sulpicius to Cicero, on the death of his daughter, describes as it then was, and now is, a path which I often traced in Greece, both by sea and land, in different journeys and voyages. "On my return from Asia, as I was sailing from AEgina towards Megara, I began to contemplate the prospect of the countries around me: AEgina was behind, Megara before me; Piraeus on the right, Corinth on the left: all which towns, once famous and flourishing, now lie overturned and buried in their ruins. Upon this sight, I could not but think presently within myself, Alas! how do we poor mortals fret and vex ourselves if any of our friends happen to die or be killed, whose life is yet so short, when the carcasses of so many noble cities lie here exposed before me in one view."--See Middleton's Cicero, 1823, ii. 144.
[The letter is to be found in Cicero's Epist. ad Familiares, iv. 5. Byron, on his return from Constantinople on July 14, 1810, left Hobhouse at the Island of Zea, and made his own way to Athens. As the vessel sailed up the Saronic Gulf, he would observe the "prospect" which Sulpicius describes.]
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