Poetry - She Walks in Beauty Flashcards
1
Q
Context
A
Personal life was a subject of scandal in high social circles in England
2
Q
Key points
A
- Descriptions of female beauty, literary blazon
- Infatuation, admiration
3
Q
Structure / form
A
- ABABAB rhyme scheme
- Direct address
- Lyric poem
4
Q
Key quotations
A
“All that’s best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes”
- Brings about ideal balance to form perfection
- Enjambment maintains the speaker’s sense of awe, breathless at women’s beauty
“One shade the more, one ray the less”
- Establishment of balance, unbelievable intricate beauty
- Near impossibility of being
“Half impaired the nameless grace”
- “nameless grace”, expectation of beauty and perfection transcends individual identity, becomes an idealised concept
“So soft, so calm, yet eloquent”
- Triadic structure, demonstrates extent of feminine perfection, repeated positive adjectives
