Canto IV XLVIII
That page is now before me, and on mineHIS country's ruin added to the massOf perished states he mourned in their decline,And I in desolation: all that WASOf then destruction IS; and now, alas!Rome--Rome imperial, bows her to the storm,In the same dust and blackness, and we passThe skeleton of her Titanic form,Wrecks of another world, whose ashes still are warm.
Yet, Italy! through every other landThy wrongs should ring, and shall, from side to side;Mother of Arts! as once of Arms; thy handWas then our Guardian, and is still our guide;Parent of our religion! whom the wideNations have knelt to for the keys of heaven!Europe, repentant of her parricide,Shall yet redeem thee, and, all backward driven,Roll the barbarian tide, and sue to be forgiven.
But Arno wins us to the fair white walls,Where the Etrurian Athens claims and keepsA softer feeling for her fairy halls.Girt by her theatre of hills, she reapsHer corn, and wine, and oil, and Plenty leapsTo laughing life, with her redundant horn.Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps,Was modern Luxury of Commerce born,And buried Learning rose, redeemed to a new morn.
Words in this poem
- desolation n.
- The act of desolating or laying waste; destruction of inhabitants; depopulation. [F. désolation, L. desolatio.]
- 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,]
- repentant a.
- Penitent; sorry for sin. [F. repentant.]
- parricide n.
- Properly, one who murders one's own father; in a wider sense, one who murders one's father or mother or any ancestor. [F., fr. L. parricida; pater father + caedere to kill. See Father, Homicide, and cf. Patricide.]
- etrurian a.
- Of or relating to ancient Etruria, in Italy.
- girt v. t.
- To gird; to encircle; to invest by means of a girdle; to measure the girth of; as, to girt a tree. [From Girt, n., cf. Girth, v.]
- theatre n.
- An edifice in which dramatic performances or spectacles are exhibited for the amusement of spectators; anciently uncovered, except the stage, but in modern times roofed. [F. thé\'83tre, L. theatrum, Gr. dhya to meditate, think. Cf. Theory.]
- 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.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV XLVIII 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 XLVIII, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-xlviii.html, id L06594.
Form and metre
Canto IV XLVIII 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 85%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 37% 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 mineA · massB · declineA · wasB · alasB · stormC · passB · formC · warmC
- 2 ABABBCBCC landA · sideB · handA · guideB · wideB · heavenC · parricideB · drivenC · forgivenC
- 3 ABABBCBCC wallsA · keepsB · hallsA · reapsB · leapsB · hornC · sweepsB · bornC · mornC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| That page is now before me, and on mine | 10 | ·········· |
| HIS country's ruin added to the mass | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Of perished states he mourned in their decline, | 10 | ·/˘·····˘/ |
| And I in desolation: all that WAS | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Of then destruction IS; and now, alas! | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Rome--Rome imperial, bows her to the storm, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| In the same dust and blackness, and we pass | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| The skeleton of her Titanic form, | 10 | ·/˘˘··˘/˘· |
| Wrecks of another world, whose ashes still are warm. | 12 | ··˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Yet, Italy! through every other land | 10 | ·/˘˘·/˘/˘· |
| Thy wrongs should ring, and shall, from side to side; | 10 | ·········· |
| Mother of Arts! as once of Arms; thy hand | 10 | /˘········ |
| Was then our Guardian, and is still our guide; | 10 | ··//˘···/· |
| Parent of our religion! whom the wide | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘··· |
| Nations have knelt to for the keys of heaven! | 11 | /˘·······/˘ |
| Europe, repentant of her parricide, | 10 | /˘˘/˘··/˘˘ |
| Shall yet redeem thee, and, all backward driven, | 11 | ··˘/···/˘/˘ |
| Roll the barbarian tide, and sue to be forgiven. | 13 | ··˘/˘·····˘/˘ |
| But Arno wins us to the fair white walls, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Where the Etrurian Athens claims and keeps | 11 | ··˘/˘˘/˘··· |
| A softer feeling for her fairy halls. | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Girt by her theatre of hills, she reaps | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Her corn, and wine, and oil, and Plenty leaps | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| To laughing life, with her redundant horn. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘· |
| Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps, | 10 | ˘/···/˘/˘· |
| Was modern Luxury of Commerce born, | 10 | ·/˘/˘˘·/˘· |
| And buried Learning rose, redeemed to a new morn. | 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 ["By the events of the years 1813 and 1814, the house of Austria gained possession of all that belonged to her in Italy, either before or in consequence of the Peace of Campo Formio (October 17, 1797). A small portion of Ferrara, to the north of the Po (which had formed part of the Papal dominions), was ceded to her, as were the Valteline, Bormio, Chiavenna, and the ancient republic of Ragusa. The emperor constituted all these possessions into a separate and particular state, under the title of the kingdom of Venetian Lombardy."--Koch's History of Europe, p. 234.]
- Stanza 1, line 8 It is Poggio, who, looking from the Capitoline hill upon ruined Rome, breaks forth into the exclamation, "Ut nunc omni decore nudata, prostrata jaceat, instar Gigantei cadaveris corrupti atque undique exesi."
[See De Fortunae Varietate, ap. Nov. Thes. Ant. Rom., ap. Sallengre, i. 502.] - Stanza 2, line 2 [Compare Milton, Sonnet xxii.--
" ... my noble task, Of which all Europe talks from side to side."] - Stanza 3, line 8 [The wealth which permitted the Florentine nobility to indulge their taste for modern, that is, refined luxury was derived from success in trade. For example, Giovanni de' Medici (1360-1428), the father of Cosmo and great-grand-father of Lorenzo de' Medici, was a banker and Levantine merchant. As for the Renaissance, to say nothing of Petrarch of Florentine parentage, two of the greatest Italian scholars and humanists--Ficino, born A.D. 1430, and Poliziano, born 1454--were Florentines; and Poggio was born A.D. 1380, at Terra Nuova on Florentine soil.]
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.