What literature is this quote from?

Question

In the movie, To Sir, with Love, Pamela, a student, reads this quote in the beginning of the movie. What is it from?
"And he had learned to love. I know not why, for this in such as him seemed strange of mood. But thus it was. And though in solitude’s small part the nipped affections have to grow. In him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow."
Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Mandi,
Your quote is a truncated version of the 54th stanza of the third canto of Lord Byron's long narrative poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, written in the early 19th century.

You'd like it because although it's very old it has quite a modern theme as it describes the travels and thoughts of quite disillusioned young man who seeks some real meaning, and distractions, abroad.

While nowadays we might be disillusioned by the Iraq war and worried about global warming, in those days Byron's generation in Britain was world weary after the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Childe, was a term for a young man who was hoping to become a knight.

The poem is in fact pretty autobiographical and Byron, who travelled widely, felt the poem gave away too much about himself.

Anyway it was an immediate hit in the days when poetry was much more widelt read than it is today.

Here's the version of the verse that I have, I hope you get round to reading the whole thing Mandi.


This version says that the young man, who was very scornful and not what you would have thought of as the romantic type, had 'learned to love'

-----------------------------------

And he had learned to love,--I know not why,
For this in such as him seems strange of mood, -
The helpless looks of blooming infancy,
Even in its earliest nurture; what subdued,
To change like this, a mind so far imbued
With scorn of man, it little boots to know;
But thus it was; and though in solitude
Small power the nipped affections have to grow,
In him this glowed when all beside had ceased to glow.

Answer 2

To Sir With Love Quotes

Answer 3

The quote is from A Love Story by A. Bushman. Chapter XVII, The Wanderer's Return.

Edit: Heather is correct. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage is a laborious poem. Hats off to you, Heather. I only remembered the quote from A Love Story, never knowing there was another origin.

Answer 4

I think it is Lord Byron from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.