She walks in beauty Flashcards
1
Q
“she walks in beauty like the night”
A
- Emanates beauty everywhere she goes, establishes speakers sense of awe at beauty
- ‘like the night’, suggest her beauty permeates throughout, overwhelms everything – shadows above all - domineering
2
Q
“Of cloudless clines and starry skies”
A
- Implies her beauty is as breath taking and expansive as starry skies
- ‘cloudless’ implies no imperfections obscure her beauty
3
Q
“And all that best of dark and bright”
A
- Continues to assert her physical superiority
- Extent of her beauty can reconcile 2 apparent opposites – in perfect harmony
- ‘darkness’ may refer to spiritual darkness – as she is seen in a funeral
- Her radiance further set of by dim spirits
- Enjambment further emphasis
4
Q
“one shade more, one ray less”
A
- Opposites represented in parallelism, highlighting her flawlessness
- Synthesis of light and dark so perfect, minor alteration could cause travesty
5
Q
“serenely sweet, how dear their dwelling place’
A
- Moves away from endorsement of her aesthetic qualities to make assumptions upon her character
- Implies internal and external beauty inextricably connected
- From appearance, derived her mind is ‘serenely sweet’ from dwelling
6
Q
Structure – ABAB, Enjambment
A
- Emphasis of her flawlessness, regularity of walk
- Multiple enjambment: Byron cant pause for breath, breath taken
