tomb of Petrarch. Next he proceeds fifty miles due south to Ferrara, the home of Tasso and Ariosto; then southwest to Florence. Having left Florence he finds on his way Lake Trasimeno; farther south, the river Clitumnus; still farther on, the Marble Cascade, near Terni. He remembers Horace, as he looks upon Mount Soracte, northeast of the Eternal City. At last in Rome he pauses long over the vast riches the city has to offer him. Leaving Rome he seeks from the summit of the Alban mountains a view of the object he loves best— the sea. With the magnificent stanzas on the ocean the poem ends. The Meaning and the Value of the Poem Childe Harold, though it does indeed describe places, works of art, scenes from nature, and great men and great events of ancient and modern Italy, is not at all a guidebook. For two reasons: first, it was not written to order; Byron fails to mention a host of things he must have seen and might well have included in his poem. Childe Harold is thus a very incomplete picture of Italy - even of Byron's own imaginary journey from Venice to Rome. The poet describes only what made to him a special appeal, what most impressed his imagination and aroused his emotions. Fortunately, all that Byron describes is great and memorable in itself and has taken a strong and permanent hold on the imagination of mankind. It is strange, however, that he names not one single painter (Michelangelo is named as sculptor and architect), though Italy has produced many of the greatest, and he knew very well their names; that he mentions not one single picture, though he must have wandered through the most superb picture galleries of the world, at Venice, Florence, and Rome. He selects his material simply according to the demands of his own nature. Again, and as a result of this fact, Childe Harold is not merely what is called a descriptive poem, dealing only with external objects as they must appear to any casual observer. As such the poem would be little more than versified prose. Childe Harold is in truth highly subjective, that is, it presents external objects as seen through the medium of Byron's own individuality, with his very eyes - colored, glorified, and interpreted by the sensibility and imagination of a great poet. The poem thus becomes a consistent and splendid work of art and the revelation of a great personality. OUTLINE VENICE: I-XIX (I-IV, descriptive and reflective; v-x, lyrical; XI-XIX, descriptive and reflective). LYRICAL STANZAS: XX-XXIV (suffering, and its effect upon the soul). ITALY: XXV-XXVI (its beauty and its ruins; reflective). SUNSET ON THE BRENTA: XXVII-XXIX (descriptive). ARQUÁ AND PETRARCH: XXX-XXXIV (descriptive and reflective). ITALY: XLII-XLVII (her fatal beauty, her decay, her wrongs. Reflective). FLORENCE: XLVIII-LXI (the city; the Venus de' Medici; Santa Croce and its dead; Michelangelo and others; Dante and others. Descriptive and reflective). THRASIMENE: LXII-LXV (the place and the battle. Descriptive). THE MARBLE CASCADE: LXIX-LXXII (descriptive). THE APENNINES AND SORACTE: LXXIII-LXXVII (descriptive and reflective). ROME: LXXVIII-CLXIII (descriptive, reflective, lyrical). The city and its decay: LXXVIII-LXXXII. Sylla and Cromwell: LXXXIII-LXXXVI. Statues of Pompey and the Wolf: LXXXVII-LXXXVIII. Napoleon and Cæsar: LXXXIX-XCII. Reflections upon human life and its futility; tyranny and freedom: XCIII-XCVIII. Tomb of Cecilia Metella: XCIX-CIII. Lyrical stanzas: CIV-CVI (the poet's sense of isolation and his despair). The Palatine Mount: cVII-CIX. The Forum and surrounding objects: cx-CXIV. Egeria and her fountain: cxV-CXIX. Lyrical stanzas: CXX-CXXVII (love, the ideal impossible of attain ment). The Coliseum: CXXVIII-CXXIX. Lyrical stanzas: CXXX-CXXXVII (the poet's wrongs). The Coliseum: CXXXVIII-CXLV. The Pantheon: CXLVI-CXLVII. Legend of the Roman Daughter: CXLVIII-CLI. Hadrian's Mausoleum: CLII. St. Peter's Church: CLIII-CLIX. Statues in the Vatican: CLX-CLXIII. LYRICAL STANZAS: CLXIV-CLXVI (the Pilgrim and his passing). REFLECTIVE (ELEGIAC) STANZAS: CLXVII-CLXXII (the death of Princess Charlotte Augusta). VIEW FROM THE ALBAN MOUNT: CLXXIII-CLXXIV (descriptive, reflective). THE OCEAN: CLXXV-CLXXXIV (descriptive, reflective, lyrical). I I STOOD in Venice,1 on the "Bridge of Sighs "; 2 A palace and a prison on each hand: I saw from out the wave her structures rise O'er the far times, when many a subject land Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles ! II She looks a sea Cybele,* fresh from Ocean, A ruler of the waters and their powers: And such she was; - her daughters had their dowers 1 Venice: This city has shared with Florence the especial favor of great Eng. lish poets. Compare Byron's more elaborate "Ode on Venice," beginning, "Oh, Venice! Venice! when thy marble walls Are level with the waters, there shall be 2 "Bridge of Sighs": so called from the fact that through its passages prisoners were led for trial and judgment. It was built in 1597 over the Rio (canal) della Paglia, and connects the Doge's palace with the state prisons. 8 The winged Lion's: St Mark, the patron saint of Venice, has the lion for his symbol in Christian art, and the "Lion of St. Mark" thus became the standard of the Republic. Its image in bronze is one of the sights of the city. 4 A sea Cybele: Cybele, originally an Asiatic goddess, was later identified with the Greek Rhea, mother of the gods. The source of social progress and civilization, she was also regarded as the founder of towns and cities, and for this reason is represented in art as crowned with a diadem of towers. She traveled riding on a lion or in a chariot drawn by lions. Byron's reference to Venice as a "sea Cybele" is hence peculiarly appropriate. Venice was a mother of civilization and the arts, wore a " tiara of proud towers," and had for her standard' the "winged Lion." Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers: III In Venice Tasso's echoes1 are no more, The Revel of the earth- the Masque of Italy! IV But unto us she hath a spell beyond Her name in story, and her long array Of mighty shadows, whose dim forms despond With the Rialto; Shylock and the Moor,* 1 Tasso's echoes: in the days when Venice was an independent state it is said that a favorite song of the gondoliers consisted of selections from Tasso's famous epic poem, Jerusalem Delivered, translated from the Tuscan into the Venetian dialect. For Tasso, see note 4, p. 69. 2 Revel; Masque: a "revel" in old times was what the name implies,—a boisterous entertainment, full of jollity and noisy sport. "Masque " here perhaps stands for the carnivals for which Venice was famous, since masques were worn at these festivals. The word may however refer to that species of dramatic entertainment known as the "Masque," -a mixture of pageant, song, and dance, which originated in Italy. 8 Rialto: this word comes from "rivo alto" (deep stream), and at first designated the group of islands on the left of the Grand Canal, which formed the site of the original city. But Byron incorrectly uses the word for the Ponte di Rialto (Bridge of the Rialto), which spans the Grand Canal and forms one of the most famous landmarks of Venice. 4 Shylock and the Moor: Shylock is the principal character of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice; the Moor is Shakespeare's Othello. The scenes of both And Pierre,1 cannot be swept or worn away The keystones of the arch! though all were o’er, For us repeopled were the solitary shore. V The Beings of the Mind are not of clay: And multiply in us a brighter ray And more beloved existence: that which Fate Of mortal bondage, by these Spirits supplied, VI Such is the refuge of our youth and age- And the strange constellations which the Muse VII I saw or dreamed of such, but let them go, I could replace them if I would; still teems plays are laid in part in Venice. Byron here names the two greatest of all imaginary characters connected with the city. 1 Pierre: the hero of a famous English tragedy, Venice Preserved, by Thomas Otway (1652-1685). |