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By Lord Byron (George Gordon) 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. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace.
Learn More. "She Walks in Beauty" is a famous poem by British Romantic poet Lord Byron, first published in 1815. 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 ...
- Summary
- Historical Background and Context
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Themes
- Analysis, Stanza by Stanza
- Similar Poetry
Scholars believe that ‘She Walks in Beauty‘ by Lord Byron was written when the poet met his cousin, Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmont. The speaker spends the lines celebrating the beauty of one woman. He compares her beauty to the night rather than the day. The latter is suggested to be “gaudy,” and the “lady” certainly isn’t. The speaker describes differe...
Lord George Gordon Byronwas born on 22 January 1788 in Dover – though people also believe that he might have been born in London. He was the son of Captain John ‘Mad Jack’ Byron and his second wife, the heiress of an estate in Aberdeenshire. His first wife, the Marchioness of Carmarthen, was Augusta Leigh’s mother. As a leading figure of the Romant...
‘She Walks in Beauty’ by Lord Byron is a three-stanza poem, each stanza of which contains six lines. This is the poetic form that is mostly used for hymns and is thus associated both with simplicity and with chasteness. The poem itself, although a type of love poem, does not refer to passionate or sexual love. The poem follows a rhyme schemeof ABAB...
Throughout this poem, the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to: 1. Alliteration: occurs when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “Which waves” in stanza two and “serenely sweet” later on in that same stanza. The latter is also an example of sibilance....
Throughout this piece, Byron engages with themes of beauty and purity. When seeing his cousin, he’s struck by both elements of her physical presence. She has a pure beauty that he feels is unmatched by any he’s seen in the back. He’s taken by what she looks like as well as her inner beauty. Byron certainly idealizes his vision of his cousin but, it...
Stanza One
The speaker opens the poem with perhaps the two most famous lines that Byron has ever written: “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.” Right from the start, Byron sets the tone of the poem with a comparisonthat seems almost divine — beauty like the vast, starry night. Her beauty does not seem purely physical, either; instead, it is almost an aura, a shield of beauty, unaware and a...
Stanza Two
The poet goes on in the second stanza to compare and contrastdifferent aspects of beauty: her dark hair and her white face, which the light hits, seem to recall images of the Virgin Mary. It is easier to make associations with the divine and the religious due to the poem’s structure, that of a hymnal. There is also an emphasis — which would further strengthen the images of religion — on innocence. The lady’s beauty is largely innocent, almost virginal, and the poet cannot find a word that ful...
Stanza Three
Unlike the day, the night is devoid of people, devoid of clouds, and quiet. It is when things rest. She is not warped by her beauty, and she exists in a world that is, to Byron, peaceful — her heart is innocent, her mind clear. Given his nature for troubled thoughts, it is interesting to see what Byron emphasizes as beautiful, though not at all surprising given the rumors that followed him throughout his life. There is not much happening in the poem; it describes a few snatched moments of pea...
Readers who enjoyed ‘She Walks in Beauty’ should also consider reading some other Lord Byron poems. For example: 1. ‘Fare Thee Well‘ – was Byron’s attempt at rebuilding his reputation. He hoped that people would read it and rethink what they believed about him. 2. ‘Darkness‘ – serves as a warning against the growing inequality in Byron’s time and a...
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"She Walks in Beauty" is a short lyrical poem in iambic tetrameter written in 1814 by Lord Byron, and is one of his most famous works. It is said to have been inspired by an event in Byron's life. On 11 June 1814, Byron attended a party in London. Among the guests was Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, wife of Byron's first cousin, Sir Robert Wilmot. He ...
Overview. “She Walks in Beauty” is a short lyric poem written by the British Romantic poet Lord Byron in 1814. Often more associated with epic narrative poems such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–1818) and his magnum opus Don Juan (1819–1824), Byron also wrote shorter lyric poems exploring abstract philosophical ideals such as ...
Lord Byron wrote She Walks in Beauty as an ode to her purity and grace. It was published in Hebrew Melodies in April 1815. (Photogravure, based on a lithograph, of Anne Beatrix Wilmot-Horton ...
Dec 14, 2018 · By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Perhaps Lord Byron’s best-loved and most widely anthologised lyric poem, ‘She Walks in Beauty’ is quoted in Dead Poets Society as an attempt to seduce a young woman, and it epitomises a particular kind of Romantic poem: that is, a poem idolising (and idealising) a woman’s beauty.
