CHILDE HAROLD'S "GOOD NIGHT" TO HIS NATIVE LAND. I. ADIEU, adieu! my native shore The night winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea mew. Yon sun that sets upon the sea Farewell awhile to him and thee, 2. 5 A few short hours and he will rise To give the morrow birth; And I shall hail the main and skies, But not my mother earth. Deserted is my own good hall, Its hearth is desolate; Wild weeds are gathering on the wall; My dog howls at the gate. ΙΟ 15 was sug 1 This lyric is from the first canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published in 1812, when the author was but twenty-four. Byron tells us it gested by Lord Maxwell's Good Night, in the Border Minstrelsy, edited by Mr. Scott." 3. "Come hither, hither, my little page!1 Why dost thou weep and wail? Or tremble at the gale? But dash the tear-drop from thine eye; Our fleetest falcon scarce can fly More merrily along." 4. 20 "Let winds be shrill, let waves roll high, 2 I fear not wave nor wind: Yet marvel not, Sir Childe, that I Am sorrowful in mind; For I have from my father gone, A mother whom I love, And have no friend, save these alone, But thee-and one above. 5. "My father blessed me fervently, Yet did not much complain; 1 Robert Rushton, the son of one of Lord Byron's tenants. 39 35 40 "I like him," wrote Byron to the lad's mother, " because, like myself, he seems a friendless animal." 6. "Come hither, hither, my stanch yeoman,1 Why dost thou look so pale? Or dost thou dread a French foeman? 2 Or shiver at the gale?" "Deem'st thou I tremble for my life? Sir Childe, I'm not so weak; Will blanch a faithful cheek. 45 7. "My spouse and boys dwell near thy hall, 50 And when they on their father call, What answer shall she make?". "Enough, enough, my yeoman good, Thy grief let none gainsay; But I, who am of lighter mood, Will laugh to flee away." 8. For who would trust the seeming sighs Of wife or paramour? Fresh feres will dry the bright blue eyes We late saw streaming o'er. For pleasures past I do not grieve, Nor perils gathering near"; My greatest grief is that I leave No thing that claims a tear.4 55 60 1 William Fletcher, Byron's faithful valet, who served the poet for twenty years and was with him when he died at Missolonghi in 1824. 2 Were the French foemen of the English in 1809? 3" Fere," a consort or companion. ▲ Byron wrote to his mother in June, 1809: “The world is all before me, Welcome, welcome, ye dark-blue waves! And when you fail my sight, Welcome, ye deserts and ye caves! My native Land-Good Night! 80 and I leave England without regret, and without a wish to revisit anything it contains, except yourself." CHILDE1 HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. CANTO THE THIRD, STANZAS I-XLVII.2 "Afin que cette application vous forçât de penser à autre chose; il n'y a en vérité de remède que celui-là et le temps.”3—Lettre du Roi de Prusse à D'Alembert, September 7, 1776. I. Is thy face like thy mother's, my fair child! But with a hope. Awaking with a start, 5 The waters heave around me; and on high The winds lift up their voices: I depart, When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye. 1 The word " childe," in old poetical usage, means a noble youth, as Childe Waters, Childe Childers. (See Shakespeare's line in Lear, iii. iv., where Edgar sings: "Childe Rowland to the dark tower came.") Byron first called his hero Childe Burun, an early form of his own family name. 2 See Introduction, p. 9, for an account of Cantos I. and II. 3 Translate this French motto, and explain how it applies to Byron's personal history. ▲ Augusta Ada Byron (born December 10, 1815) was but five weeks old |