she walks in beauty

Question 1

essence of the poem

Answer 1

‘She walks in beauty’ describes a speakers feelings of infatuation and love-struck awe at his subjects etheral, enchanting aura yet unusual beauty. The poem does not depict a romantic relationship, but comprises and illustrative display of obsessive love and wonder, exploring the depth of her beauty.

Question 2

Lord Byron

Answer 2

• leading figure in the Romantics movement, most notorious and flamboyant of his time
• personal life plagued by rumour - drugs, incest, affairs and homosexuality
• died fighting for the Greeks against the Ottoman Empire
• ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’
• inspired the Byronic hero

Question 3

Byronic Hero

Answer 3

arrogant, intelligent, educated outcast who somehow balance their cynicism and self-destructive tendencies with a mysterious magnetism and attraction, particularly for heroines

Question 4

form

Answer 4

lyric poem, originally set to traditional Jewish tunes

Question 5

themes

Answer 5

captivation, obsession, desire

Question 6

title

Answer 6

‘She Walks in Beauty’
- no comment on the speaker’s desires
- present tense, captures the aura of her nature as the speaker writes
- as readers, we long to know what accentuates her beauty

Question 7

‘She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.’

Answer 7

• she is more than just a beautiful woman, beauty surrounds her
• caesura in opening line, already to pause and dote on her beauty, need for this so early on in the poem as her beauty is overwelming
• alliteration amplifies beauty, she is someone hard not to notice
• romantics viewed beauty in relation to nature
• antithesis between ‘dark and bright’ shows the duality of her beauty
• poem does not obsess just over the superficiality of her looks, but how her inner perfection produces a beauty superior to nature itself

Question 8

‘One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,’

Answer 8

• beauty is perfectly balanced and in harmony, shown structurally as each half has the same number of words and syllables
  -‘raven’ gives her a darker aspect, associated with a bird of bad omen
  
  • Byron avoids conventional symbols and romantic cliches to describe the subjects beauty
• ‘nameless’ words cannot match her qualities, yet our poet still attempts to, ironic

Question 9

‘Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.’

Answer 9

• rhyme of stanza is ABABAB, simplicity of his argument
• poets typically used blazon to reduce woman’s body into parts, but Byron puts concentration on her inner beauty
• alliteration of soft ‘s’ sounds create gentle delicate feel, conjures image of femininity and a tender, light touch

Question 10

‘And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!’

Answer 10

• inner purity and perfection has blessed her with outward beauty
• her beauty and supposed innocence is almost biblical in nature and divine, reflecting the poem’s structure that is much like a hymn
  
  • praises and reinforced her virginal innocence
  • mirrors poems content as pure love, albeit absent of references of passionate or sexual love

Question 11

rhythm

Answer 11

consistent, to emphasise the subject’s flawlessness and overall perfection

Question 12

enjambment

Answer 12

utilises enjambment for the flowing outpour of love, mirroring his inability to pause for breath as his love is continuous as is her beauty

Question 13

who is said to be the subject of the poem?

Answer 13

The subject of the poem is said to be his cousin’s wife, Anna Beatrix Wilmot.