She walks in beauty - Lord Byron Flashcards
poem overview
The poem praises and seeks to capture a sense of the beauty of a particular woman. The speaker compares this woman to a lovely night with a clear starry sky, and goes on to convey her beauty as a harmonious “meeting” between darkness and light. After its discussion of physical attractiveness, the poem then portrays this outer beauty as representative of inner goodness and virtue.
What type of poet is Byron? What type of poem is this poem? What is its meter?
He’s a romantic poet
This poem is a lyrical poem
The meter is iambic tetrameter
Poem structure
iambic tetrameter, consists of 3 sestets
symmetrical, alternating rhyme scheme
each sestet serve its own purpose
regular meter throughout suggests order, symmetry, harmony, he thought harmony was beauty.
(in the fourth line is a slight change called a metrical substitution - trochaic tetrameter, stres on verb ‘meet’, helps create a sense of light and dark)
‘She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright’
She embodies beauty, she is beauty, preposition ‘in’, simile, ‘like’ ‘night’ assonance, noun ‘night’ connotes elusion and mystery, sort of raw magnificence.
consonance ‘cloudless climes’, sibilance, romantic, enchanting, pathetic fallacy suggests a ethereality, celestial overpowering love. Suggests her beauty is magnanimous and immortal, like the stars don’t end, neither does she. oxymoron
pronoun ‘all’, symmetry, harmony, she’s a perfectly balanced person (context: byron didn’t believe people were all bad)
‘Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.’
plural noun ‘eyes’ - window to the soul, her symmetry is perfect, and is seen instantly. It’s pure and it’s all she encompasses. Her eyes illustrate the ‘darkness’ and ‘brightness’ within her. The narrator is fascinated by how her physical existence hints at her personality.
Archaic language, premodified noun phrase ‘tender light’ - Byron depicts her beauty as a ‘tender light’. This is sensory imagery of touch and sight and the tenderness suggests a softness and radiance to the light which symbolises her beauty. Adjective ‘gaudy’ suggests However, compared to the magnificence of the light which personifies her beauty the daylight does no longer seem beautiful but instead ‘gaudy’
‘One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace’
By adding more rays of sunshine or taking them away from her beauty it will ‘impair’ the perfect equilibrium she possesses and the ultimate beauty it brings. The ‘nameless grace’ is her beauty, as it’s ‘nameless’ he can’t quite put his finger on what it is that makes her beauty so strong and divine.
Aspirants ‘had half’
First line could be considered as diacope
‘Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.’
preposition ‘over’, verb phrase ‘softly lightens’
The light brightens her face and the convergence of the natural beauty of sunlight and her face creates a godly, divine image.
sibilance, Byron shifts to describing the beauty of her mind and thoughts. The adjective ‘serene’ portrays her thoughts as composed and tranquil while their ‘sweetness’ alludes to a youthful innocence and pureness of her mind.
premodified noun phrase ‘dwelling-place’
The ‘dwelling-place’ of her thoughts is her brain and just from looking into her eyes, Byron believes he can make out the untainted ‘pureness’ of her mind.
‘And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,’
The Polysyndeton of ‘and’ is repeated in the 3rd stanza and emphasises her never-ending beauty as now he focuses on her also beautiful cheeks and forehead.
Again this line could be portraying her physical beauty and the ‘soft’ and ‘calm’ complexion of her cheeks and forehead. However, it could relate to her personality and ‘eloquent’ would suggest this.
diacope’ so soft, so calm’
or ‘so…so…yet’ anaphora
‘A heart whose love is innocent!’
Exclamative
The final line reiterates that Byron isn’t just attracted by her physical beauty but also her personality created by the ‘innocent’ love of her heart.
