ANALYSIS ON THE POEM “SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY”
She walks in Beauty
I.
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 the tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
She walks in beauty--like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
II.
One ray the more, one shade the less
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face--
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
She walks in beauty--like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
III.
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.
She walks in beauty--like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
She Walks in Beauty."
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Nov 2007, 18:02 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. 12 Nov 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=She_Walks_in_Beauty&oldid=178996529
“She walks in Beauty” is a poem by
George Gordon, Lord Byron, written in 1814 and published in
The International Byron Society: http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
On the poem “She Walks in Beauty”: Hebrew Melodies. http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=15
(16 Nov 2007)
Starting the analysis of the poem, I
have to talk about the kind of poem we have in front of our eyes.
First of all, I want to emphasize
that I have found two versions of the poem. In one version the poem is made of
three eight-line stanzas, because the first two sentence are repeated at the
end of each stanza (what we call refrain). In the other version, the poem is
made of three six-line stanzas because there is no repetition at the end of
each stanza. I have analysed the second version, which is more common, because
I have found it several times on Internet.
“She Walks in Beauty” is a poem made
of three stanzas. Following the second version of the poem, it is an
eighteen-line poem of three six-line stanzas, and the rhyme is ABABAB, CDCDCD,
EFEFEF. The rhyming words of the first stanza are night/light/bright and skies/eyes/denies.
As we can see, the rhyme pattern is consonant rhyme among the odd lines (night/bright/light) and among the even
lines (skies/eyes/denies). The
rhyming pattern is repeated in the following stanzas, with consonant rhyme
among odd lines (second stanza: less/tress/express;
third stanza: brow/glow/below), and
among the even lines (second stanza: grace/face/place;
third stanza: eloquent/spent/innocent).
Moreover, the meter is iambic tetrameter, a meter comprising four feet per
line, in which the predominant kind of foot is the iamb of unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable.
Furthermore, the pause on the poem is marked
by punctuation marks. On the first stanza, the pause is made after two lines.
The first couple of lines end with a semicolon, which shows that the two lines
are a couple. The following two lines are other couple and end with a pause
indicated by colon. The last two lines of the first stanza are another couple
which ends with a point, which indicates another pause. In the second stanza
the pause is different. The first line ends with a comma, which indicates a
pause; the following second and third lines work together because they end with
another comma, and a pause, too. The fourth line ends with a semicolon, which
indicates that it is a pause at the end of that line; and the fifth and sixth
lines are a couple which ends with a point. Finally, in the third stanza we can
see that each line ends with a comma, which indicates that they are lines with
a final pause and they have to be read separately. In the version where there
is a refrain at the end of each stanza, that refrain is made of two lines (the
first two lines of the poem), with a final pause. The repetition of these lines
(the refrain) is used to underline the topic of the poem.
Other aspects I want to talk about
are the rhetorical devices and figures of speech. I think they are interesting
in the sense we need to understand them to understand the correct meaning of
the poem. “She walks in Beauty” is a simple and easy poem, where we cannot find
a large quantity of rhetorical devices. I am going to emphasize the use of a
simile in the first two lines, where Byron compares the beauty with a cloudless
and starry night: “She walks in beauty,
like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies” (lines 1-2). Moreover the author uses an oxymoron
in the second line of the third stanza, where there is an opposite
characteristic to the previous ones: “So
soft, so calm, yet eloquent” (line14). Soft and calm are adjectives
contraries to eloquent, but it is used by the author to express that beauty is
eloquent because it talks by itself, but at the same time it is calm and soft,
something delicate. Finally, I have underlined the use of a pathetic fallacy,
where the author uses a word that refers to human actions on something
non-human. It can be seen in the third and fourth lines of the third stanza,
where Byron uses the verbs win and tell to refer to the smiles: “The smiles that win, the tints that glow/ But tell of days in goodness
spent” (lines 15-16).
Talking about the symbolism, I want
to stress the opposition of dark/light-bright, which is repeated in the poem
and which express what is beauty in author’s mind, as we will see in that
paper.
Furthermore, the language is simple.
The poem is easy to understand because its language is simple and it expresses
what the author want to express without using complicate sentences or
expressions, to be understand without difficulty; as the beauty is simple and it
is understand without difficulty, because we can see it at first glance. The poem is written in a simple way to be
understood at first glance, too. The main words of the poem, which have the
main meaning, can be arranged into two groups. On one hand, the words that
refer to the woman: aspect, eyes, raven
tress, face, thoughts, cheek, brow, smile, tint, mind, heart and innocent. On the other hand, the words
that refer to the contrast dark/light: night,
cloudless, clime, starry skies, dark, bright, tender light, shade, ray,
lightens and glow. In that sense,
we can see that the vocabulary practically refers to the same things, either to
beauty or to the contrast between dark and light. So this contrast is another
way to talk about beauty because Byron compares it with the dark and light.
Once I have analysed the external
and internal structure of the poem, I am going to analyse the lines of that
beautiful poem to understand correctly what Lord Byron wanted to express.
“She walks in Beauty” starts with
the title: “She walks in beauty, like the
night/Of cloudless climes and starry skies;” (lines 1-2). These are the
first two lines, which are a couple and express that the woman walks in beauty
like a cloudless and starring night, that is, the woman is beautiful as a
starring night is, too. This is the first time that the theme of darkness
appears (in night), contrary to the light which is expressed by the stars of
the sky. That opposition is repeated along the three stanzas of the poem,
because the author is talking about the beauty and that opposition is used to
express it, to compare the opposition with beauty. In that sense, I have
understood that Byron feels that beauty is something which is dark and light,
something apparent and at the same time, something occult. Furthermore, the
third and fourth lines are a couple, too: “And
all that's best of dark and bright/ Meet in her aspect and her eyes:”
(lines 3-4). Here, the author tells us how her face and her eyes are, and the
opposition appears again, in the sense that the woman’s eyes and face reflect
the dark and the light. This is the manner Byron understands beauty: beauty is
bright, but also is dark; it is something that is mysterious, but also light,
clear; it is something that is apparent, and we can see it with light, but it
is something occult, which is the dark part because we need more efforts to see
that part. And the last lines of the first stanza are another way to express
that contrast, that opposition: “Thus
mellow'd to that tender light/ Which heaven to gaudy day denies.” (lines
5-6).
The second stanza starts saying that
her beauty is perfect because it is in the right proportion: “One shade the more, one ray the less,/ Had
half impair'd the nameless grace” (lines 7-8). There is nothing that must be
eliminated and nothing that must be added: she is perfect. Moreover, we can see
the contrast between dark and light again, and it is explained because her
beauty is perfect due to the proportion between dark and light, and in that
sense, Byron explained that she is the nameless grace: her beauty is so perfect
that it cannot have name. Then, in lines 11, 12, 13 and 14 (third, fourth,
fifth and sixth lines of the second stanza), Byron writes some characteristic
of the woman’s beauty: “Which waves in
every raven tress,/ Or softly lightens o'er her face;/ Where thoughts serenely
sweet express/ How pure, how dear their dwelling place.”. Byron states that
her raven tress and her face are softly illuminated (light). Furthermore, Byron
express that her thoughts are serene, pure and sweet, and it is normal if we
think that her thoughts are in relation with her beauty (it is pure, sweet,
calm, perfect). In that point Byron is arguing that the external beauty is
related to the internal one. She is beautiful into herself as much as she is
outwardly.
Garry Gamber. “She walks in Beauty”. A discussion of
the Poem by Lord Byron. Enzine Articles. October, 09, 2005, from http://ezinearticles.com/?She-Walks-In-Beauty,-A-Discussion-of-the-Poem-by-Lord-Byron&id=80761
(16 Nov 2007)
In addition to that point, the
opposition of dark/light has a new meaning there. Dark could be the internal
beauty of the woman, the dark part which is more difficult to see (psychical
beauty); and light would be the external beauty of the woman, the physical
beauty.
The last stanza starts with three
lines of physical description. Byron writes about her cheek, her brow and her
smile: “And on that cheek, and o'er that
brow,/ So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,/ The smiles that win, the tints that
glow,” (lines 13-14-15). The author suggests that her cheek and her brow
are soft, calm but eloquent, because her beauty has expression by itself. Her
smile reflects happiness, and it is brilliant, as the tints, and these things
tell us about happy days, goodness days: “But
tell of days in goodness spent,” (line 16). The following three lines are
about the woman’s nature: “A mind at
peace with all below,/ A heart whose love is innocent” (lines 17-18). Byron
claims her mind is at peace with all, and her heart is plenty of innocent love.
In that sense, Byron is explaining that she is beautiful into herself, inner.
This is again the theme that the woman’s physical beauty is a reflection of her
inner beauty (as Byron has explained before in the second stanza, lines
11,12,13 and 14).
Garry Gamber. “She walks in Beauty”. A discussion of
the Poem by Lord Byron. Enzine Articles. October, 09, 2005, from http://ezinearticles.com/?She-Walks-In-Beauty,-A-Discussion-of-the-Poem-by-Lord-Byron&id=80761
(16 Nov 2007)
The summary of the analysis of the
poem is that beauty is a mixture of dark and light. It has a part of darkness,
we want to see it but we need light. And we can see beauty with light but it
cannot be learned. Beauty would be, as Byron claims, a star in the dark sky,
and as an image, it would be a woman glowing in a dark night. Moreover, beauty
is based in two kinds of beauty: the external and the internal one, and the
total amount of these two results on the perfect beauty.
To sum up, the poem is well
organised, because it has a clear structure and it follows a clear pattern, and
these things help on the correct understanding of it. The main topic is latent
into the three stanzas, through the expression of the ideas and the meaning of
the symbols and themes that appear in it. The fact that we cannot find a big
amount of rhetorical devices is explained because the poem is simple in
structure and language, it has a logical order and it is not necessary to
confuse it. In my opinion, it is an easy poem in the sense we can understand it
easily, and although there are surely a lot of things to say about it, the
analysis I have made captures the main ideas of Byron. I think that the way
Byron refers to beauty and the manner the author describes the beauty of his
cousin, in comparison with a starry night, is sublime. Moreover, I think that
this poem causes admiration to the readers because they admire the way Byron
has expressed beauty.
Finally, and to end with the
analysis of the poem, I have to talk about the context of the poem and the
poet, and why the poem is important in that sense.
George Gordon or Lord Byron is
considered one of the most important and interesting poets of the Romantic
Movement in
George Gordon Byron was born in
“George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron."
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 Nov 2007, 14:54 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. 19 Nov 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron
“She walks in Beauty” was the first
of several poems to be set to Jewish tunes from the synagogue by Isaac Nathan,
an English-Australian composer, musicologist, journalist and self-publicist,
which were published as Hebrew Melodies in 1815. “She walks in Beauty” was
written in 1814, several months before Byron married with Anna Milbanke. Byron
attended a party at Lady Sitwell and there he met his cousin, Mrs. Wilmot. Her
beauty inspired the author, who wrote the poem upon her. And we know it is true
because his cousin was wearing black clothes and raven tresses and a friend of
the author wrote it, as we have seen at the beginning of the paper. It is not a
love poem, because it reflects beauty and purity, the inner and outer beauty of
his cousin. But some critics have said that Byron fell in love with his cousin
but there is nothing in the poem that refers to love.
"She Walks in Beauty." Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. 19 Oct 2007, 18:02 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 14 Nov 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_walks_in_beauty
“She walks in Beauty” is one of his
minor works, where we can see a lot of poems, without any relation in its
topics. Byron was an author who wrote about different things, the natural
things and his experiences. We cannot classify his poems using the topics,
because there are a lot of topics, normally his experiences. The best
classification we can do is into major works and minor works. Into major works
we have his best-known works and bigger in importance, as “Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage” (1812-1818), “Darkness” (1816) and “Don Juan” (1819-1824).
Moreover, if we talk about “She walks in Beauty” as a poem which appears in
“Hebrew Melodies”, it can be classified as a major work, too. But if we take
the poem in an isolated way, it belongs to his minor works, as “The first Kiss
of Love” (1806), “The Cornelian” (1807) and “Epitaph of a dog” (1809).
"George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron."
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Nov 2007, 14:54 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. 14 Nov 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron
The historical and social context
when the poem was written is plenty of battles. There was a war, the war of
1812, which had its origins in 1807 and which ended in 1815. But it is not
important in our analysis of the poem because that poem is not related to the
historical context.
In conclusion, the poem belongs to
the minor works of the author, and its importance appears when it is published
as a poem of the “Hebrew Melodies” in 1815. “She walks in Beauty” is a
reflection of the author about the beauty, and it is made after he met his
cousin in a party. And the most remarkable part of that poem is its validity in
present times. Generally, poetry does not become old. Poetry is contemporary,
and “She walks in Beauty” reflects this. This poem could be a present poem,
because its sense and its meaning could be applied to today’s beauty. Beauty
remains equal, is always the same, in the past and in present times, and
moreover, it will remind in the future. Although in each period of time the
beauty’s canons change, the sense of beauty, its meaning, is the same. And if
we did not know the date of the poem, probably we would consider the poem as a
present poem. In my opinion, the way Byron express beauty with the opposition
of dark and light is really good. As I have explained, it has not got only one
meaning, and it could be interpreted from different points of view and it
depends on each person. For me, dark represents the internal beauty, as well as
the occult parts of beauty; and light represents the external beauty, the
obvious things, the bright of our faces, our eyes, our smiles, etc. And both
external and internal beauties in proportion, when dark and light are in the
right measure, we can say that perfection appears.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- The International Byron
Society: http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
On
the poem “She Walks in Beauty”: Hebrew Melodies. http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=15
(16 Nov 2007)
-http://www.internationalbyronsociety.org/images/stories/pdf_files/hebrew_melodies.pdf
-Garry
Gamber. “She walks in Beauty”. A discussion of the Poem by Lord Byron. Enzine
Articles. October, 09, 2005, from http://ezinearticles.com/?She-Walks-In-Beauty,-A-Discussion-of-the-Poem-by-Lord-Byron&id=80761
(16 Nov 2007)
-“George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. 19 Nov 2007, 14:54 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 19
Nov 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron
-"She
Walks in Beauty." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 Oct 2007, 18:02
UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 14 Nov 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_walks_in_beauty