Canto IV XXI
I can repeople with the past--and ofThe present there is still for eye and thought,And meditation chastened down, enough;And more, it may be, than I hoped or sought;And of the happiest moments which were wroughtWithin the web of my existence, someFrom thee, fair Venice! have their colours caught:There are some feelings Time cannot benumb,Nor torture shake, or mine would now be cold and dumb.
But from their nature will the tannen growLoftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks,Rooted in barrenness, where nought belowOf soil supports them 'gainst the Alpine shocksOf eddying storms; yet springs the trunk, and mocksThe howling tempest, till its height and frameAre worthy of the mountains from whose blocksOf bleak, grey granite, into life it came,And grew a giant tree;--the mind may grow the same.
Existence may be borne, and the deep rootOf life and sufferance make its firm abodeIn bare and desolate bosoms: muteThe camel labours with the heaviest load,And the wolf dies in silence. Not bestowedIn vain should such examples be; if they,Things of ignoble or of savage mood,Endure and shrink not, we of nobler clayMay temper it to bear,--it is but for a day.
Words in this poem
- repeople v. t.
- To people anew. [Pref. re- + people: cf. F. repeupler.]
- chastened a.
- Corrected; disciplined; refined; purified; toned down. Sir. W.
- benumb v. t.
- To make torpid; to deprive of sensation or sensibility; to stupefy; as, a hand or foot benumbed by cold. [OE. binomen, p. p. of binimen to take away, AS. beniman; pref. be + niman to take. See Numb, a., and cf. Benim.]
- sufferance n.
- The state of suffering; the bearing of pain; endurance. [OE. suffrance, OF. sufrance, soufrance, F. souffrance, L. sufferentia, from sufferens, -entis, p.pr. of sufferre. See Suffer.]
- abode n.
- Act of waiting; delay. [OE. abad, abood, fr. abiden to abide. See Abide. For the change of vowel, cf. abode, imp. of abide.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Canto IV XXI 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 XXI, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/canto-iv-xxi.html, id L06585.
Form and metre
Canto IV XXI 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%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 52% 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 ofA · thoughtB · enoughA · soughtB · wroughtB · someC · caughtB · benumbC · dumbC
- 2 ABABBCBCC growA · rocksB · belowA · shocksB · mocksB · frameC · blocksB · cameC · sameC
- 3 ABABBCBCC rootA · abodeB · muteA · loadB · bestowedB · theyC · moodB · clayC · dayC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I can repeople with the past--and of | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| The present there is still for eye and thought, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And meditation chastened down, enough; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘·˘/ |
| And more, it may be, than I hoped or sought; | 10 | ·········· |
| And of the happiest moments which were wrought | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Within the web of my existence, some | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| From thee, fair Venice! have their colours caught: | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| There are some feelings Time cannot benumb, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘/ |
| Nor torture shake, or mine would now be cold and dumb. | 12 | ·/˘········· |
| But from their nature will the tannen grow | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Loftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Rooted in barrenness, where nought below | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| Of soil supports them 'gainst the Alpine shocks | 10 | ··˘/···/·· |
| Of eddying storms; yet springs the trunk, and mocks | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The howling tempest, till its height and frame | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Are worthy of the mountains from whose blocks | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Of bleak, grey granite, into life it came, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And grew a giant tree;--the mind may grow the same. | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Existence may be borne, and the deep root | 10 | ˘/˘······· |
| Of life and sufferance make its firm abode | 11 | ···/˘˘···˘/ |
| In bare and desolate bosoms: mute | 9 | ···/˘˘/˘· |
| The camel labours with the heaviest load, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| And the wolf dies in silence. Not bestowed | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| In vain should such examples be; if they, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Things of ignoble or of savage mood, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| Endure and shrink not, we of nobler clay | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| May temper it to bear,--it is but for a day. | 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 7 [Shelley, in his Lines written among the Euganean Hills, allows to Venice one lingering glory "one remembrance more sublime"--
"That a tempest-cleaving swan Of the songs of Albion, Driven from his ancestral streams By the might of evil dreams, Found a nest in thee; and Ocean Welcomed him with such emotion, That its joy grew his, and sprung From his lips like music flung O'er a mighty thunder-fit, Chastening terror."] - Stanza 2, line 1 Tannen is the plural of tanne, a species of fir peculiar to the Alps, which only thrives in very rocky parts, where scarcely soil sufficient for its nourishment can be found. On these spots it grows to a greater height than any other mountain tree.
[Byron did not "know German" (Letter to Murray, June 7, 1820), and he may, as Mr. Tozer suggests, have supposed that the word "tannen" denoted not "fir trees" generally, but a particular kind of fir tree. He refers, no doubt, to the Ebeltanne (Abies pectinata), which is not a native of this country, but grows at a great height on the Swiss Alps and throughout the mountainous region of Central Europe.]
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