Lord Byron – Childe Harold

Lord Byron describes in gory detail a bullfight which Childe Harold sees as “such the ungentle sport that oft invites the Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain”.
Childe Harold, reminiscing on his younger days laments: ” Oh! many a time, and oft, had Harold lov’d, or dream’d he lov’d, since Rapture is a dream; but now his wayward bosom was unmoved…”; thinking “Love has no gift so grateful as his wings” and, by his new mature philosophy, he knows: “And Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb, had buried long his hopes, no more to rise…”

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 1 part 5 [10:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold finds the spanish ladies a warlike lot who “stalk with Minerva’s step where Mars might fear to tread’ to avenge their fallen men; “yet are Spain’s maids no race of Amazons, but formed for all the witching arts of love”. But “her lips, whose kisses pout to leave their nest, bid men be valiant ere he merit such”. Childe is tempted to return to his debauchery when he “beholds a train more fitting to inspire, the song of love, than Andalusia’s maids” and thinks “ah, vice, how soft are thy voluptous ways!”.

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 1 part 4 [12:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Childe Harold crosses the Sierra Navadas into Spain, where he finds much revellery going on notwithstanding the immenent French invasion “And must they fall? the young, the proud, the brave, to swell one bloated chief’s unwholesome reign?”. He questions the motives of those “bloated chiefs” in causing such suffering and asks “can despots compass aught that hails their sway?… save that wherein they crumble bone by bone”

 Lord Byron - Childe Harold Canto 1 part 3 [13:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This reading of Childe Harold’s Pilgramage by Lord Byron contains Stanza’s 1 through 13, bookmarked and clearly narrated for easy listening on your ipod, the artwork is: The Bright Stone of Honour (Ehrenbreitstein) and the Tomb of Marceau, from Byron’s ‘Childe Harold’, 1835 by Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851)

 Childe Harold's Canto 1 - Part 1 [11:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download