Lord Byron – Childe Harold

Lord Byron tells how Childe Harold viewed the rise and fall of Napoleon “Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou!…..A god unto thyself ; not less the same to the astonished kingdoms all inert…”. He acknowledges that “An empire thou couldst crush, command , rebuild, but govern not thy pettiest passion…”. Childe concludes “”Tis but a worthless world to win or lose; so hath it proved to thee, and all such lot who choose”. He warns that “he who ascends to mountain-tops, shall find the loftiest peaks most rapt in clouds and snow…”

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Lord Byron ,alias Childe Harold, on his second visit abroad, first stops off at the battlefield of Waterloo; “And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, the grave of France, the deadly Waterloo!” where he wonders if the defeat of Napoleon was worth all the bloodshed; “Shall we, who struck the Lion down, shall we pay the Wolf homage?”. He grieves for all the fallen men; “Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, last eve in Beauty’s circle proudly gay…”. As he stood on the field in Springtime “And saw around me the wide field revive with fruits and fertile promise, and the Spring come forth, her work of gladness to contrive, with all her reckless birds upon the wing,” he laments that “I turn’d from all she brought to those she could not bring”.

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After many years Childe Harold is tempted to travel again “But who can view the ripened rose, nor seek to wear it? Who can curiously behold the smoothness and the sheen of beauty’s cheek, nor feel the heart can never all grow old?”. “Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends; where rolled the ocean, theron was his home,… He had the passion and the power to roam”. He was like “A wild-born falcon ….to whom the boundless air alone were home”.

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Childe Harold finally arrives in “Fair Greece! sad relic of departed worth!” but he is disappointed to find the Greeks “Trembling beneath the scourge of Turkish hand, from birth to death enslav’d; in word, in deed unmann’d”. However it’s not all sadness for the inhabitants “And join the train of merry Carnival” as the do “ere lenten days begin”.
Lord Byron writes wistfully “Oh Love! young Love! bound in thy rosy band, let sage or cynic prattle as he will, these hours, and only these, redeem Life’s years of ill!” thinking back ,no doubt , on his own unfruitful love affair.
According to him Greece will only regain its greatness “When Grecian mothers shall give birth to men, then may’st thou be restored; but not till then”.
The poet, talking of his own work, says “For thee,….. soon shall thy voice be lost amid the throng of minstrels in these later days….” but “Ill may such contest now the spirit move….since..none are left to please when none are left to love”. He cries for “Thou too art gone, thou lov’d and lovely one! Whom youth and youth’s affection bound to me”; and asks “What is my being? thou hast ceas’d to be!”. He concludes “What is the worst of woes that wait on age? What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? To view each love’d one blotted from life’s page, to be alone on earth, as I am now”.

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Childe Harold speaks of the people he met in Albania and of being entertained at the chief’s palace “Ali reclin’d, a man of war and woes; yet in his lineaments ye cannot trace, … the deeds that lurk beneath, and stain him with disgrace”. He fears that “Blood follows blood, and, through their mortal span, in bloodier acts conclude those who with blood began”.
However, Childe considered “But Peace abhorreth artificial joys, and Pleasure, leagued with Pomp, the zest of both destroys”; “And were it humbler, it in sooth were sweet”.
Childe was once shipwrecked here “Full on the coast of Suli’s shaggy shore” but was much suprised when “The Suliotes stretch’d the welcome hand, … And spread the fare; though homely, all they had: such conduct bears Philanthropy’s rare stamp…”.He describes the circling cove ” How brown the foliage of the gren hill’s grove, nodding at midnight o’er the calm bay’s breast, as winds come lightly from the west, kissing not ruffling the blue deep’s serene….”
The traveller speaks highly of these Greecian exiles whom he calls Suliotes and quotes their song Tambourgi! Tambourgi!

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Lord Byron describes the fierce people and wild places Childe Harold encounters as “And onwards did his further journey take to greet Albania’s chief, whose dread command is lawless law; for with a bloody hand he sways a nation, turbalent and bold….”. He enjoys the mountains “Dusky and huge, enlarging on the sight, nature’s volcanic amphitheatre, Chimaera’s alps extend from left to right:….”At the court of the chief Childe sees “The Turk, the Greek, the Albanian, and the Moor, here mingled in their many-hued array,…”

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Lord Byron tells how Childe Harold has reformed himself when it came to loving women “But Harold on such arts no more relied; and had he doted on those eyes so blue, yet never would he join the the lover’s whining crew”. However Childe Harold can still give some sound advise to would-be lovers about how to woe a woman “Not much he kens, I ween , of woman’s brest, who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs….Brisk Confidence still best with woman copes; picque her and soothe in turn, soon Passion crowns thy hopes”.
Childe Harold goes on east to “Land of Albania! where Iskander rose, theme of the young, and beacon of the wise….. Oh thee, thou rugged nurse of savage men!”
He looks over the sea to “Ambrecia’s gulf behold, where once was lost a world for woman, lovely , harmless thing!” And it was lost by ‘Imperial Anarchs, doubling human woes! GOD! was thy globe ordain’d for such to win and lose?”

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Lord Byron describes the sea voyage of Childe Harold “Through Calpe’s straits survey the steepy shore; Europe and Afric on each other gaze!”.
The poet contrasts the loneliness felt by one “But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,……With none who bless us , none whom we can bless;…….This is to be alone, this is solitude! with what comfort “… ’tis but to hold converse with Nature’s charms and view her stores unroll’d”.

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Lord George Byron starts the second canto of Childe harold’s pilgrimage in Greece at that time under Turkish Moslem rule, a condition which he very much regrets; but he accepts that “even Gods must yield – religions take their turn: ’twas Jove’s – ’tis Mahomet’s – and other creeds will rise with other years, till man shall learn vainly his incense soars, his victim bleeds; poor child of Doubt and Death , whose hope is built on reeds”. He wonders why “Is’t not enough, unhappy thing! to know thou art…”.
The poet, however, reserves his greatest critism for Lord Elgin and the british who “Tore down those remnants with a Harpy hand, which envious Eld forebore, and tyrants left to stand”.

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Childe Harold sings a sad song to Inez saying “To me no pleasure Beauty brings; thine eyes have scarce a charm for me”.
He goes on to lament the fate of all Spain under the french invasion and that of ‘fair Cadiz’ in particular, saying “When all were changing thou alone wert true, first to be free and last to be subdued:…”. However he considers their suffering “Strange retribution! now Columbia’s ease repairs the wrongs that Quito’s sons sustain’d, while o’er the parent clime prowls Murder unrestrain’d”.
Lord Byron says “Here is one fytte of Harold’s pilgrimage: ye who of him may further seek to know, shall find some tidings in a further page, if he that rhymeth now may scribble moe”.

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