GEORGE GORDON BYRON, 1788-1824.

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

Romanticism starts around the middle of the 18th century in Western Europe. This movement appears as a revolt against aristocratic, social and political norms. One of the main characteristics is their stress on strong emotions and aesthetic experience. The romantics preferred to write emotional and imaginative expression to rational analysis. They wanted to evade into another world, exotic, melancholic, etc.

George Gordon Byron, known as Lord Byron belongs to the second period of romanticism. He was born in 1788 in London, although it will not be where he will life because he will travel along his life. His father was John Byron and his mother Catherine Gordon.

This romantic poem “She walks in beauty” was written in 1814 by him, year in which he wrote a series of songs to be set to adaptations of traditional Jewish tunes by Isaac Nathan, and this poem was the first of these songs. Byron said that he wrote this poem after meet his cousin, Lady Anne, I supposed in a party or something like that because Bob Blair pointed out; “She was wearing a black mourning grown with spangles” that is why the contrast between light and dark. The poem was publishing after his marriage with Annabella Milblank, with whom he had a daughter, Augusta Ada. A year later she left him, because he was unfaithful to her, and he never saw his daughter and wife again.

The poem claims the love as a sign of inner beauty and purity. This was the most popular topic of Renaissance and Medieval poetry.

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY, by Lord Byron.

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 mellow'd to that tender light 5

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impair'd the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face; 10

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow, 15

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent.

The first line “she walks in beauty, like the night”, Byron compares the night with her, the night is also beautiful.

In the second line “of cloudless climes and starry skies” is where we understand that the night is beautiful, is not dark, it is full of light thanks of the stars and cloudless.

The lines three and four “and all that’s best of dark and bright, meet in her aspects and her eyes” are enjambed (the continuation of meaning, without pause or break, from one line to the next), they bring together some of her qualities, her eyes are being able to contain the opposites of dark and bright and also her aspects.

This poem just mention her eyes and his aspect in general, but not other physical features of the Lady, however the first verse show us that she is really beautiful, in the last two lines “thus mellow’d to that tender light, which heaven to gaudy day denies”, light, day, denies are in opposition, the day cannot deny the light, here we found that the Lady is being able to have all these qualities, she is the union of a perfect girl. In this first verse, Byron compares the beauty of the girl with the nature, this is a romantic feature.

“One shade the more, one ray the less, had half impar’d the nameless grace” are the lines seven and eight, so, it means that at this way she is perfect, she does not need anything else, she is a complete girl.

In nine and ten lines, “Which waves in every raven tree, or softly lightens o’er her face;”, here, again the dark and light are presents, the first line would be the dark, the night, and the second line, the light, the day.

In the following lines, eleven and twelve, “Where thoughts serenely sweet express, how pure, how dear their dwelling-place” now, he is not talking about her physical beauty, now he wants to show us the purity of her soul, “sweet thoughts” means deeper feelings. The alliteration with the sound “s” expresses that her feelings are calms, serene.

This second verse shows us the perfection of this Lady.

Lines thirteen, fourteen and fifteen “And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, so soft, so calm, yet eloquent, the smiles that win, the tints that glow” correspond to a physical description of the beauty that this Lady has.

Firstly the last three lines of this poem, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen lines “But tell of the days in goodness spent, a mind at peace with all bellow, a heart whose love is innocent” these lines describe the Lady’s moral character. She has the purity and goodness of her soul, her inner beauty, her own peace. She is perfect, not only physically (she combines the light with the dark) also psychology (she brings the peace, the purity, the goodness, etc)

This poem consists on eighteen lines in three stanzas. First the poet speaks about her, but he compares the Lady with the nature, then he shows us a little more of how she is physically and psychology.

He uses some rhetorical figures as the metaphor to describe the beauty of the Lady, for example; he compares the beauty with the night.

It is an iambic poem, with a stress syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. There are eight syllables in each line, and the rhyme scheme is: ABABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF. Lord Byron not wants to tell us that the darkness not only has to be melancholic, miserable or desolate, it can also be beauty. And in the poem the main idea is that the beauty not only belongs to her physical features also in her inner world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

- Lord Byron’s biography, Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc., 26 Nov, 2007 http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/lord_Byron

- She walks in beauty, Bartbely. 2005. 28 Nov, 2007 www.bartbely.com/106/173.html

- Discussion of a poem by Lord Byron, 2007. 28 Nov, 2007. www.ezinearticles.com/?she-walks-in-beauty,-a-discussion-of-a-poem-by-lord-byron&id=80761