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Translation of the Famous Greek War Song

Lord Byron (1788–1824) · 1816

iambic tetrameter · 36 lines · from The Giaour, and Other Poems

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Sons of the Greeks, arise!The glorious hour's gone forth,And, worthy of such ties,Display who gave us birth.

Sons of Greeks! let us goIn arms against the foe,Till their hated blood shall flowIn a river past our feet.

Then manfully despisingThe Turkish tyrant's yoke,Let your country see you rising,And all her chains are broke.Brave shades of chiefs and sages,Behold the coming strife!Hellenes of past ages,Oh, start again to life!At the sound of my trumpet, breakingYour sleep, oh, join with me!And the seven-hilled city seeking,Fight, conquer, till we're free.

Sparta, Sparta, why in slumbersLethargic dost thou lie?Awake, and join thy numbersWith Athens, old ally!Leonidas recalling,That chief of ancient song,Who saved ye once from falling,The terrible! the strong!Who made that bold diversionIn old Thermopylae,And warring with the PersianTo keep his country free;With his three hundred wagingThe battle, long he stood,And like a lion raging,Expired in seas of blood.

Words in this poem

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.]
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,]
broke v. i.
To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
strife n.
The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Translation of the Famous Greek War Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 3, Project Gutenberg ebook #21811; 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, Translation of the Famous Greek War Song, in The Giaour, and Other Poems (1816), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #21811, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/byron-works-3/translation-of-the-famous-greek-war-song.html, id L26288.

Form and metre

Translation of the Famous Greek War Song is 36 lines in 4 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.

See other poems in iambic tetrameter.

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. 1 A-A- ariseA · forth · tiesA · birth
  2. 2 AAA- goA · foeA · flowA · feet
  3. 3 ABABCDCD-E-E despisingA · yokeB · risingA · brokeB · sagesC · strifeD · agesC · lifeD · breaking · meE · seeking · freeE
  4. 4 ABABCCCCDBD-EFEF slumbersA · lieB · numbersA · allyB · recallingC · songC · fallingC · strongC · diversionD · thermopylaeB · persianD · free · wagingE · stoodF · ragingE · bloodF
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 tetrameter. How this is done.

LineSyl.Stress
Sons of the Greeks, arise!6····˘/
The glorious hour's gone forth,6·/˘/··
And, worthy of such ties,6·/˘···
Display who gave us birth.6˘/····
Sons of Greeks! let us go6······
In arms against the foe,6······
Till their hated blood shall flow7··/˘···
In a river past our feet.7··/˘·/·
Then manfully despising7·/˘˘˘/˘
The Turkish tyrant's yoke,6·/˘/˘·
Let your country see you rising,8··/˘··/˘
And all her chains are broke.6······
Brave shades of chiefs and sages,7·····/˘
Behold the coming strife!6˘/·/˘·
Hellenes of past ages,6/˘··/˘
Oh, start again to life!6··˘/··
At the sound of my trumpet, breaking9·····/˘/˘
Your sleep, oh, join with me!6······
And the seven-hilled city seeking,8··/·/˘/˘
Fight, conquer, till we're free.6·/˘···
Sparta, Sparta, why in slumbers8/˘/˘··/˘
Lethargic dost thou lie?6˘/˘···
Awake, and join thy numbers7˘/···/˘
With Athens, old ally!6·/˘·˘/
Leonidas recalling,6···˘/˘
That chief of ancient song,6···/˘·
Who saved ye once from falling,7·····/˘
The terrible! the strong!6·/˘˘··
Who made that bold diversion7····˘/˘
In old Thermopylae,5·····
And warring with the Persian7·/˘··/˘
To keep his country free;6···/˘·
With his three hundred waging7···/˘/˘
The battle, long he stood,6·/˘···
And like a lion raging,7···/˘/˘
Expired in seas of blood.6˘/····

On this poem

The son [Greek: Deu~te pai~des,] etc., was written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionize Greece. This translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse. It is of the same measure as that of the original. [For the original, see Poetical Works, 1891, Appendix, p. 792. For Constantine Rhigas, see Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 199, note 2. Hobhouse (Travels in Albania, 1858, ii. 3) prints a version (Byron told Murray that it was "well enough," Letters, 1899, iii. 13) of [Greek: Deu~te pai~des,] of his own composition. He explains in a footnote that the metre is "a mixed trochaic, except the chorus." "This song," he adds, "the chorus particularly, is sung to a tune very nearly the same as the Marseillois Hymn. Strangely enough, Lord Byron, in his translation, has entirely mistaken the metre." The first stanza runs as follows:--

"Greeks arise! the day of glory Comes at last your swords to claim. Let us all in future story Rival our forefathers' fame. Underfoot the yoke of tyrants Let us now indignant trample, Mindful of the great example, And avenge our country's shame."]
Notes from the edition 1

E. H. Coleridge's notes to The Works of Lord Byron, Poetry, Vol. III (John Murray, 1900; Project Gutenberg #21811). Bracketed passages are the editor's; unbracketed are Byron's own or earlier editors'. Lettered variant readings (manuscript and edition collations) are not harvested here, matching the treatment of Coleridge's Don Juan notes.

  1. Stanza 3, line 11 Constantinople. "[Greek: Heptalophos]."

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.

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