The youngest, whom my father loved,
Because our mother's brow was given
To him, with eyes as blue as heaven-

For him my soul was sorely moved;
And truly might it be distressed
To see such bird in such a nest;
For he was beautiful as day-
(When day was beautiful to me
As to young eagles, being1 free)-
A polar day,2 which will not see
A sunset till its summer's gone,

Its sleepless summer of long light,
The snow-clad offspring of the sun :

And thus he was as pure and bright,
And in his natural spirit gay,

75

80

85

The other was as pure of mind,

But formed to combat with his kind;
Strong in his frame, and of a mood
Which 'gainst the world in war had stood,

And perished in the foremost rank

With joy-but not in chains to pine:
His spirit withered with their clank,

I saw it silently decline

And so perchance in sooth did mine:

1 What does "being" modify, "me or eagles "? 2 Why not a tropical day?

3 What part of speech is "below"? Is the line good?

Those relics of a home so dear.

He was a hunter of the hills,

Had followed there the deer and wolf;

To him his dungeon was a gulf,

And fettered feet the worst of ills.

VI.

Lake Leman1 lies by Chillon's walls: 2
A thousand feet in depth below

Its massy waters meet and flow;

Thus much the fathom line was sent
From Chillon's snow-white battlement,

Which round about the wave inthralls:

A double dungeon wall and wave
Have made and like a living grave
Below the surface of the lake
The dark vault lies wherein we lay,3

We heard it ripple night and day;

105

IIO

115

Sounding o'er our heads it knocked;

And I have felt the winter's spray

Wash through the bars when winds were high
And wanton in the happy sky;

And then the very rock hath rocked,

And I have felt it shake, unshocked,

Because I could have smiled to see

The death that would have set me free.

120

125

1 Leman, ancient classic name for Lake Geneva. (See Childe Harold, Canto III. Stanza LXXXV.: "Clear, placid Leman!" etc.)

2 "The lake has been fathomed to the depth of eight hundred feet, French measure. . . . The walls are white" (BYRON). The castle with its loopholed towers, once a ducal residence, was used as both fortress and state prison. Parts of the structure are said to be nearly one thousand years old. It is on an isolated rock at the east end of Lake Geneva.

3 The dungeon is not below the surface of the lake.

I saw,
and could not hold his head,
Nor reach his dying hand-nor dead,-
Though hard I strove, but strove in vain,
To rend and gnash my bonds in twain.
He died, and they unlocked his chain,
And scooped for him a shallow grave
Even from the cold earth of our cave.
I begged them as a boon to lay
His corse in dust whereon the day
Might shine-it was a foolish thought,
But then within my brain it wrought,
That even in death his freeborn breast

145

150

155

In such a dungeon could not rest.

1 Nearer in what, distance or age?

I might have spared my idle prayer-
They coldly laughed, and laid him there:

Of Sin delirious with its dread;

But these were horrors-this was woe

Unmixed with such 4-but sure and slow:

185

1 Note the inaccuracy of the words "empty" and "leant." Bonnivard's chain, about four feet in length, is preserved among the prison relics.

I called, for I was wild with fear;

I knew 'twas hopeless, but my dread
Would not be thus admonishèd;

I called, and thought I heard a sound 2

I burst my chain with one strong bound,
And rushed to him:-I found him not,
I only stirred in this black spot,
I only lived, I only drew

The accursed breath of dungeon dew; 3
The last, the sole, the dearest link

Between me and the eternal brink,

lines on modes of death in the poem

dal chamber, Death!" etc.

1 Comment on this line.

3 What is "dungeon dew"?

210

215

"Marco Bozzaris: 99 "Come to the bri

2 Scan this line.