Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Unabridged)

Summary

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a narrative poem in four parts written by Lord Byron. It was published between 1812 and 1818. 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. Canto III describes Harold's travels in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.