"Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,
For there thy habitation is the heart--
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consigned--
To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,
Their country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.
"Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod,
Until his very steps have left a trace
Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod,
By Bonnivard!--May none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God."
[107] 4. =Sudden fears.= Marie Antoinette's hair has been said to have
turned gray on the return from Varennes to Paris. It certainly turned
gray very quickly during the anxiety of the Revolution.
[108] 22. =Sealed.= How?
[109] 27.-----------
[110] 35. =Marsh's meteor lamp=; will o' the wisp.
[111] 38. =Cankering thing.= What does canker do?
[112] 57. The =elements= are fire, air, earth, and water.
[113] 82. =Polar day.= What is the length of the day near the poles?
[114] 100. =Sooth=; truth.
[115] 107. =Lake Leman=; another name for Lake Geneva.
[116] 133. The =moat= was the ditch which surrounded a castle. The moat
of Chillon Castle, however, was the part of the lake which separated the
rock from the shore.
[117] 179. =Rushing forth in blood.= Byron is said to have been fond of
the symptoms of violent death. He, a year after writing this poem, saw
three robbers guillotined, taking careful notice of his own and their
actions. Goethe, the German poet, even thought that Byron must have
committed murder, he seemed so interested in sudden death.
[118] 230. =Selfish death=; suicide.
[119] 237. =Wist=; the imperfect tense of _wit_, _to be aware of_, _to
know_.
[120] 288. =Brother's.= It was a Mohammedan belief that the souls of the
blessed inhabited green birds in paradise.
[121] 294. =Solitary cloud.= This line is one of several very close
similarities in this poem to Wordsworth; cf.:--
"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills."
[122] 341. The =little isle= referred to is Ile de Peilz, an islet on
which a century ago were planted three elms.
[123] 392. =With a sigh.= It is not unheard of for men long imprisoned
to lose all desire for freedom, and even to return to their place of
confinement after being set free.