Lord Byron – Childe Harold

Childe acknowledges “Yet Italy!…. Mother of Arts! as once of arms; thy hand was then our guardian, and is still our guide; parent of our Religion!”. It is here “Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps was modern Luxury of Commerce born, and buried Learning rose, redeem’d to a new morn.”. He takes in “The air around with beauty; we inhale the ambrosial aspect…” so that he is “Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart reels with its fulness;…”. However he finds “Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar…. His life , his fame, his grave, though rifled -not thine own.”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 4 part 4 [9:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold continues through “Italia! oh Italia, thou who hadst the fatal gift of beauty, which became a funeral dower of present woes and past,…” and he finds “The moral lesson bears, drawn from such pilgrimage”. He pays triibute to many writers but condemns the “Patron or tyrant, as the changing mood of petty power impell’d, of those who wore the wreath which Dante’s brow alone hath worn before”. “He! with a glory round his furrow’d brow…”, while thou! form’d to eat , and be despis’d, and die, even as the beasts that perish, save that thou hadst a more splendid trough and wider sty;…” is how Childe sees others compared to Dante.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 4 part 3 [9:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold contemplates the past glories of Italy in general and Venice in particular; “And is the loviest, and must ever be the master-mould of Nature’s heavenly hand, wherein are cast the heroic and the free, the beautiful, the brave – the lords of earth and sea”. He sees there “The commonwealth of kings, the men of Rome! And even since, and now, fair Italy! thou art the garden of the world, the home of all Art yields, and nature can decree;…”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 4 part 2 [8:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe’s first station on his pilgrimage through Italy is “Where Venice sate in state, thron’d on her hundred isles!”. He remembers how she was “A ruler of the waters and their powers: and such she was; – her daughters had their dowers from spoils of nations,…”. He regrets “those days are gone – but Beauty still is here.” She is ” The revel of the earth, the masque of Italy”. After “The Suabian sued, and the Austrian reigns – An emperor tramples where an Emperor knelt”. He sees “Venice, lost and won, her thirteen hundred years of freedom done, sinks, like a seaweed, into whence she rose!” and “Too often remind her who and what enthrals, have flung a desolatre cloud o’er Venice’ lovely walls”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 4 part 1 [9:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold crosses the Alps and arrives in”Italia! too, Italia! looking on thee, full flashes on the soul the light of ages,…”. He feels “We are not what we have been, and to deem we are not what we should be,…”. He admits “I have not loved the world, not the world loved me:…”, but he trusts “That goodness is no name, and happiness no dream.”.
The poet Byron cannot refrain from thinking of “My daughter! with thy name this song begun- My daughter! with thy name thus much shall end-…” .Sadly he hopes “I know that thou wilt love me, though my name should be shut from thee,…”. In concluding the canto he sends best wishes to her “O’er the sea, and from the mountains where I now respire, fain would I waft such a blessing upon thee, as, with a sigh, I deem thou might’st have been to me!”

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 3 part 9 [6:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The pilgrim halts this time at “Clarens! by heavenly feet thy paths are trod, – undying Love’s, who here ascends a throne to which the steps are mountains;…”.and he finds “The bud which brings the swiftest thought of beauty, here extend, mingling, and made by Love, unto one mighty end”. He advises “he who hath loved not, here would learn that lore, and make his heart a spirit;….”. Childe begs “but let me quit man’s works, again to read his Maker’s, spread about me,…”

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 3 part 8 [6:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold dallies beside “Clear placid Leman!” and says “This quiet sail is a noiseless wing to waft me from distraction;….”. He looks to the night sky “Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven!” and addresses as “For ye are a beauty and a mystery,… that fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star”. Childe also talks to the dark “And this is the night:- most glorious night! Thou wert not made for slumber!”. “Sky, mountains, river, winds, lightnings!…. Well may be things that have made me watchful…” he laments “But as it is, I live and die unheard, with a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 3 part 7 [8:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lord Byron writes in glowing terms about Childe Harold getting “To look on One , whose dust was once all fire…” referring to “Here the self-torturing sophist, wild Rousseau, the apostle of affliction, he who threw enchantment over passion,…”. About whom “His love was passion’s essence – as a tree on fire by lightning;..”.He realises that “I live not in myself, but I become portion of that around me; and to me, high mountains are a feeling, but the hum of human cities torture:…”

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 3 part 6 [9:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold pays tribute to good men who fought on either side like Marceau “Brief, brave, and glorious was his young career,- … For he was freedom’s champion…”. He has to say “Adieu to thee fair Rhine! How long delighted the stranger fain would linger on his way!” as he goes forward on his pilgrimage towards the Alps “The palaces of nature, whose vast walls have pinnacled in clouds their snowy scalps”. Childe considers that “To fly from, need not be to hate, mankind; all are not fit with them to stir and toil,…..’Midst a contentious world, striving where none are strong”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 3 part 5 [9:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold comes to cross the Rhine “But Thou, exulting and abounding river! making thy waves a blessing as they flow through banks whose beauty would endure forever could man but leave thy bright creation so,….”.”Nor was all love shut from him, though his days of passion had consumed themselves to dust”. But yet “And he had learn’d to love…. In him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow”. He remembers “And there was one soft breast,.. which unto him was bound by stronger ties than the church links withal”. On the banks of the Rhine he sings his forlone song to the love of his life, perhaps Lady Caroline Lamb, saying “But one thing want these banks of Rhine,- thy gentle hand to clasp in mine”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 3 part 4 [8:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download