Frontispiece to a c. 1825 edition of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

Lo! where the Giant on the mountain stands,
His blood-red tresses deep'ning in the sun,
With death-shot glowing in his fiery hands,
And eye that scorcheth all it glares upon;
Restless it rolls, now fixed, and now anon
Flashing a far,—and at his iron feet
Destruction cowers to mark what deeds are done.
For on this morn three potent nations meet,
To shed before his shrine the blood he deems most sweet.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a lengthy narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. It was published between 1812 and 1818 and is dedicated to "Ianthe". The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands. In a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. The title comes from the term childe, a medieval title for a young man who was a candidate for knighthood.

Origins[link]

The poem contains elements thought to be autobiographical, as Byron generated some of the storyline from experience gained during his travels through Portugal, the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea between 1809 and 1811.^[1] The "Ianthe" of the dedication was the term of endearment he used for Charlotte Harley, the 13-year-old daughter of Lady Oxford (the artist Francis Bacon's great-great-grandmother).^[2]

Despite Byron's initial hesitation at having the first two cantos of the poem published because he felt it revealed too much of himself,^[3] it was published, at the urging of friends, by John Murray in 1812, and brought both the poem and its author to immediate and unexpected public attention. Byron later wrote, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous".^[4]

Byronic hero[link]

The work provided the first example of the Byronic hero.^[5] The idea of the Byronic hero is one that consists of many different characteristics. The hero must have a rather high level of intelligence and perception as well as be able to easily adapt to new situations and use cunning to his own gain. It is clear from this description that this hero is well-educated and by extension is rather sophisticated in his style. Aside from the obvious charm and attractiveness that this automatically creates, he struggles with his integrity, being prone to mood swings or bipolar tendencies. Generally, the hero has a disrespect for any figure of authority, thus creating the image of the Byronic hero as an exile or an outcast. The hero also has a tendency to be arrogant and cynical, indulging in self-destructive behaviour which leads to the need to seduce women. Although his sexual attraction through being mysterious is rather helpful, this sexual attraction often gets the hero into trouble. The character of the Byronic hero has appeared in novels, films and plays ever since.

Structure[link]

The poem has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas, which consist of eight iambic pentameter lines followed by one alexandrine (a twelve syllable iambic line), and has rhyme pattern ABABBCBCC.

Interpretations[link]

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by J.M.W. Turner, 1823.

Childe Harold became a vehicle for Byron's own beliefs and ideas; indeed in the preface to canto four Byron acknowledges that there is little or no difference between author and protagonist. According to Jerome McGann, by masking himself behind a literary artifice, Byron was able to express his view that "man's greatest tragedy is that he can conceive of a perfection which he cannot attain".^[6]

Cultural References[link]

Parts of it have been quoted towards the end of Asterix in Belgium.

See also[link]

• Roman holiday
• Schadenfreude

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Quotations related to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage at Wikiquote

• Childe Harold's Pilgrimage at Internet Archive (scanned books original editions illustrated)
• Childe Harold's Pilgrimage at Project Gutenberg (plain text)

v t e Lord Byron Topics Barony of Byron The Byronic hero Early life Newstead Abbey Timeline of Lord Byron People Allegra Byron Anne Isabella Byron John Byron Lady Byron Claire Clairmont Contessa Guiccioli Jane Harley John Cam Hobhouse Lady Caroline Lamb Augusta Leigh Medora Leigh Ada Lovelace Thomas Moore John William Polidori Mary Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley Edward John Trelawny Longer poetry Hours of Idleness (1807) English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809) The Giaour (1813) The Bride of Abydos (1813) The Corsair (1814) Lara, A Tale (1814) Hebrew Melodies (1815) The Siege of Corinth (1816) Parisina (1816) The Prisoner of Chillon (1816) The Dream (1816) Prometheus (1816) Darkness (1816) The Lament of Tasso (1817) Beppo (1818) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818) Don Juan (1819–1824; incomplete upon Byron's death in 1824) Mazeppa (1819) The Prophecy of Dante (1819) The Vision of Judgment (1821) The Age of Bronze (1823) The Island (1823) Plays Manfred (1817) Marino Faliero (1820) Sardanapalus (1821) The Two Foscari (1821) Cain (1821) Heaven and Earth (1821) Werner (1822) The Deformed Transformed (1822) Shorter poetry "The First Kiss of Love" (1806) "Thoughts Suggested by a College Examination (1806) "To a Beautiful Quaker" (1807) "The Cornelian" (1807) "Lines Addressed to a Young Lady" (1807) "Lachin y Garr" (1807) "Epitaph to a Dog" (1808) "Maid of Athens, ere we part" (1810) "She Walks in Beauty" (1814) "My Soul is Dark" (1815) "The Destruction of Sennacherib" (1815) "Fare Thee Well" (1816) "When We Two Parted" (1817) "Love's Last Adieu" "So, we'll go no more a roving" (1830) Prose Fragment of a Novel (1819)