She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron Flashcards
Story + Message of SWIB:
- About female beauty – how inner beauty is linked to outer beauty
- The poem expresses the speaker’s feeling of infatuation and love-struck awe at the powerful beauty of a woman
- Doesn’t depict a romantic relationship but rather comprises of a display of obsessive love, wonder and admiration
- Lack of any real, palpable connection between the speaker and the reader
What was Byron part of?
- Byron was one of the leading poets of a group known as the Romantics
- Romanticism was a general artistic movement (literature, music, the visual arts, etc.) which dominated European culture from the late-18th century until the mid-19th century
Key features of Romanticism:
o a recognition of the influence of the senses and of personal emotion
o that the heart (emotion) is considered more powerful than the head (logic/reason)
o an understanding of the deep power of the natural world
What was Byron’s private lie like?
- Byron himself had many stormy personal relationships
- He was famously described as ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ by one of his lovers (Lady Caroline Lamb)
- Byron’s private life was very public, and he was well-known for his relationships with many different women
- He led a colorful like which gained him notoriety – he was something of a celebrity in his day
- He had many passionate love affairs with both men and women and is thought to have had a scandalous liason with his half-sister
- Byron officially separated from his wife – unusual in the 19th C – he then moved abroad to escape gossip + scandal
Is love mentioned in the poem?
- No mention of love throughout the poem – main emotion sems to be more of one of admiration + admiring her from afar – contrasts his personal life and many love affairs
What was SWIB published as a part of?
- The poem was originally published as part of a collection called Hebrew Melodies in April 1815 and was intended to be set to music of a religious nature - this would have highlighted the reverence in which the poet holds the subject as he gazes at her in wonder
Who was SWIb thought to be inspired by?
- Byron is believed to have been inspired to write the poem by seeing his cousin (Mrs Anne Beatrix Wilmot) at a fashionable London party – wrote it immediately after the poem
o His poem is, therefore, a very personal one which responded to a personal situation
o It has been claimed that the lady in question was in mourning and dressed in a black spangled gown; the first two lines shows how this interpretation would seem to mirror the image that Byron creates
What were women like at the time in the 1810s?
- Women at the time would have been valued only for passivity and external beauty, but the poet’s feelings go beyond this, given that this woman is both intelligent and beautiful – “so soft, so calm, yet eloquent”
- The beauty standards of time where woman were required to look young
- “She walks in beauty, like the night”
- “she” – never names, creates mystery surrounding the female character
- simile to compare the lady and the night – adds to atmosphere of mystery as her true character is blanketed in darkness
- A sense of wonder: the speaker’s sense of wonder is not directly expressed but comes from the nature of the comparisons he makes between the woman and aspects of the natural world
- In the opening two lines the poet uses a simile (a comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’ to create a vivid image) to compare the subject’s beauty to something vast, uncontained and almost unimaginable
- “Of cloudless climes and starry skies”
- “clime” – climate
- balance between light and dark of woman expressed through alliteration of “cloudless climes” and “starry skies”
At the party, Mrs. Wilmot is said to have been in mourning, wearing a black dress set with spangles, which would explain the description of dark clothing like ‘starry skies.’
“And all that’s best of dark and bright. / “Meet in her aspect and her eyes”
- A dichotomy of good and bad - in essence, this woman is a perfect combination of good and bad characteristics: “all that’s best.” - an oxymoron - It is worth bearing in mind that this lady was in mourning, wearing black, so an element of her life was dark
- These contrasting elements may also refer to the idea of the Byronic hero - such a hero has flaws, but is still a hero, which is how this woman/girl is being depicted
- Antithesis – dark and mysterious and well as bright – slightly unconventional
- opposites meet and form extraordinary beauty
- Light: there are several references to day- and night-time, to aspects of the natural world which create light (stars) and to an inner light or radiance
- The best features of light and it’s antithesis (opposite), darkness, meet to form something even greater in the subject’s extraordinary beauty
- It is especially noticeable in her eyes
- assonance + alliteration weaved throughout the poem - the ‘i’ sounds of: ‘night’, ‘climes’, ‘skies’, ‘bright’, ‘eyes’, ‘light’ and ‘denies’)
- All but one of these words is brought to the reader’s attention by being placed at the ends of the lines
“One shade the more, one ray the less, / Had half impair’d the nameless”
- She is so perfectly beautiful that if one added a little more shade or removed rays of sunshine, the balance of her beauty would be corrupted
- syntactic parallels + juxtaposed opposites
- antithesis – repeated use highlights confusion trying to describe overpowering attractiveness
“raven tress”
-unconventional description of her - ravens are a bad omen, perhaps implying a sense of danger which surrounds her as well as her impossible uniqueness
-perhaps could add to the mystery of her and the concept of him not knowing her, but just admiring her from afar
“where thoughts serenely sweet express, / How pure, how dear their dwelling place.”
-narrator assumes the woman’s character as just as beautiful as her appearance
-sibiliance - soothing + serene, symbolic of his assumption of the purity of her mind, despite not knowing her - romanticised idea of a woman he does’t know or love contasts Dove’s intense emotion
-use of sonic ornamentation - poem originally written to be sung
‘a heart whose love is innocent!’
-end stopping in the form of an exclamation marks an expression of utter adoration
-the poet has an observational nature - she is never named or given a voice. While it adds a layer of mystery to his profound admiration, through the constant descriptions of her appearance and character, an idiolised version of her is presented to the reader in an almost glamourised way - the typical male gaze and objectification of women
-romantic poet - wrote about the influences of emotion as well as the deep power of the natural world - both portrayed through his vivid descriptions of the woman
-he had many passionate love affairs in his life - perhaps therefore the overworldly, powerful imagery surrounding his cousin he is describing could portray his passion and deep attraction he felt on the day of the party -scandalous!
