Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Lord Byron's poem in four cantos following a melancholy young nobleman, Childe Harold, on his travels through Portugal, Spain, Greece, Belgium, the Alps and Italy.

Start reading6 cantos, about 38,000 words

Famous lines

• War, war is still the cry, ‘War even to the knife!’

  Canto the FirstIn context

  • War & Peace

• Hereditary bondsmen! know ye not
  Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?

  Canto the SecondIn context

  • Freedom

• I stood
  Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
  Of thoughts which were not their thoughts

  Canto the ThirdIn context

  • Character

• There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
  There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
  There is society where none intrudes,
  By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
  I love not Man the less, but Nature more

  Canto the Fourth (2 of 2)In context

  • Nature

• Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean⁠—roll!
  Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
  Man marks the earth with ruin⁠—his control
  Stops with the shore

  Canto the Fourth (2 of 2)In context

  • Nature

Contents

1. To Ianthe
2. Canto the First
3. Canto the Second
4. Canto the Third
5. Canto the Fourth (1 of 2)
6. Canto the Fourth (2 of 2)