To Ianthe
Not in those climes where I have late been straying,Though Beauty long hath there been matchless deemed,Not in those visions to the heart displayingForms which it sighs but to have only dreamed,Hath aught like thee in truth or fancy seemed:Nor, having seen thee, shall I vainly seekTo paint those charms which varied as they beamed--To such as see thee not my words were weak;To those who gaze on thee, what language could they speak?
Ah! mayst thou ever be what now thou art,Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring,As fair in form, as warm yet pure in heart,Love's image upon earth without his wing,And guileless beyond Hope's imagining!And surely she who now so fondly rearsThy youth, in thee, thus hourly brightening,Beholds the rainbow of her future years,Before whose heavenly hues all sorrow disappears.
Young Peri of the West!--'tis well for meMy years already doubly number thine;My loveless eye unmoved may gaze on thee,And safely view thy ripening beauties shine:Happy, I ne'er shall see them in decline;Happier, that while all younger hearts shall bleedMine shall escape the doom thine eyes assignTo those whose admiration shall succeed,But mixed with pangs to Love's even loveliest hours decreed.
Oh! let that eye, which, wild as the gazelle's,Now brightly bold or beautifully shy,Wins as it wanders, dazzles where it dwells,Glance o'er this page, nor to my verse denyThat smile for which my breast might vainly sigh,Could I to thee be ever more than friend:This much, dear maid, accord; nor question whyTo one so young my strain I would commend,But bid me with my wreath one matchless lily blend.
Such is thy name with this my verse entwined;And long as kinder eyes a look shall castOn Harold's page, Ianthe's here enshrinedShall thus be first beheld, forgotten last:My days once numbered, should this homage pastAttract thy fairy fingers near the lyreOf him who hailed thee, loveliest as thou wast,Such is the most my memory may desire;Though more than Hope can claim, could Friendship less require?
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- 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,]
- beamed a.
- Furnished with beams, as the head of a stag.
- unbeseem v. t.
- To be unbecoming or unsuitable to; to misbecome. [1st pref. un- + beseem.]
- guileless a.
- Free from guile; artless.
- fondly adv.
- Foolishly. Verstegan (1673).
- hourly a.
- Happening or done every hour; occurring hour by hour; frequent; often repeated; renewed hour by hour; continual.
- peri n.
- An imaginary being, male or female, like an elf or fairy, represented as a descendant of fallen angels, excluded from paradise till penance is accomplished. Moore. [Per. peri a female genus, a fairy.]
- loveless a.
- Void of love; void of tenderness or kindness. Milton. Shelton.
- unmoved a.
- Not moved; fixed; firm; unshaken; calm; apathetic.
- admiration n.
- Wonder; astonishment. [F., fr. L. admiratio. See Admire.]
- wast
- The second person singular of the verb be, in the indicative mood, imperfect tense; -- now used only in solemn or poetical style.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Ianthe 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, To Ianthe, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–1818), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5131, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-childe-harold/to-ianthe.html, id L06475.
Form and metre
To Ianthe is 45 lines in 5 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 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.3 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 27% 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 strayingA · deemedB · displayingA · dreamedB · seemedB · seekC · beamedB · weakC · speakC
- 2 ABABBCBCC artA · springB · heartA · wingB · imaginingB · rearsC · brighteningB · yearsC · disappearsC
- 3 ABABBCBCC meA · thineB · theeA · shineB · declineB · bleedC · assignB · succeedC · decreedC
- 4 ABABBCBCC gazelle'sA · shyB · dwellsA · denyB · sighB · friendC · whyB · commendC · blendC
- 5 ABABBCBCC entwinedA · castB · enshrinedA · lastB · pastB · lyreC · wastB · desireC · requireC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Not in those climes where I have late been straying, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Though Beauty long hath there been matchless deemed, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Not in those visions to the heart displaying | 11 | ···/˘···˘/˘ |
| Forms which it sighs but to have only dreamed, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Hath aught like thee in truth or fancy seemed: | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Nor, having seen thee, shall I vainly seek | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To paint those charms which varied as they beamed-- | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| To such as see thee not my words were weak; | 10 | ·········· |
| To those who gaze on thee, what language could they speak? | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Ah! mayst thou ever be what now thou art, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| As fair in form, as warm yet pure in heart, | 10 | ·········· |
| Love's image upon earth without his wing, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| And guileless beyond Hope's imagining! | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘˘ |
| And surely she who now so fondly rears | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Thy youth, in thee, thus hourly brightening, | 10 | ·····/˘/˘˘ |
| Beholds the rainbow of her future years, | 10 | ˘/·/···/˘· |
| Before whose heavenly hues all sorrow disappears. | 12 | ···/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Young Peri of the West!--'tis well for me | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| My years already doubly number thine; | 10 | ··˘/˘/˘/˘· |
| My loveless eye unmoved may gaze on thee, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/···· |
| And safely view thy ripening beauties shine: | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| Happy, I ne'er shall see them in decline; | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| Happier, that while all younger hearts shall bleed | 10 | /˘···/˘··· |
| Mine shall escape the doom thine eyes assign | 10 | ··˘/····˘/ |
| To those whose admiration shall succeed, | 10 | ····˘/˘·˘/ |
| But mixed with pangs to Love's even loveliest hours decreed. | 13 | ······/···/˘/ |
| Oh! let that eye, which, wild as the gazelle's, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Now brightly bold or beautifully shy, | 9 | ·/˘··/˘˘· |
| Wins as it wanders, dazzles where it dwells, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Glance o'er this page, nor to my verse deny | 10 | ········˘/ |
| That smile for which my breast might vainly sigh, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Could I to thee be ever more than friend: | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| This much, dear maid, accord; nor question why | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| To one so young my strain I would commend, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| But bid me with my wreath one matchless lily blend. | 12 | ·······/˘/˘· |
| Such is thy name with this my verse entwined; | 10 | ········˘/ |
| And long as kinder eyes a look shall cast | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| On Harold's page, Ianthe's here enshrined | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Shall thus be first beheld, forgotten last: | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| My days once numbered, should this homage past | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Attract thy fairy fingers near the lyre | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| Of him who hailed thee, loveliest as thou wast, | 11 | ··········· |
| Such is the most my memory may desire; | 10 | ·····/˘·˘/ |
| Though more than Hope can claim, could Friendship less require? | 12 | ·······/˘··/ |
On this poem
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 2, line 4 [The reference is to the French proverb, L'Amitie est l'Amour sans Ailes, which suggested the last line (line 412) of Childish Recollections, "And Love, without his pinion, smil'd on youth," and forms the title of one of the early poems, first published in 1832 (Poetical Works, 1898, i. 106, 220).]
- Stanza 3, line 2 [In 1814, when the dedication was published, Byron completed his twenty-sixth year, Ianthe her thirteenth.]
- Stanza 4, line 3 [For the modulation of the verse, compare Pope's lines--
"Correctly cold, and regularly low." Essay on Criticism, line 240.
"Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes." Ibid., line 198.] - Stanza 5, line 1 [Ianthe ("Flower o' the Narcissus") was the name of a Cretan girl wedded to one Iphis (vid. Ovid., Metamorph., ix. 714). Perhaps Byron's dedication was responsible for the Ianthe of Queen Mab (1812, 1813), who in turn bestowed her name on Shelley's eldest daughter (Mrs. Esdaile, d. 1876), who was born June 28, 1813.]
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.