Summary Of She Walks In Beauty Essay

, Research Paper

Summary

Lord Byron’s poem titled, “She Walks in Beauty,” is a love poem about a beautiful woman and all of her features. The poem appears to be about a lover, but in fact was written about Byron’s cousin, Anne Wilmot, whom he met at a party in a mourning dress of spangled black. Byron shows a mixing of the darkness and the light He doesn’t show this by describing the dress or the way the woman acts, but by describing her physical beauty as well as her interior beauty. In the beginning of the poem, the reader is given the image of darkness: “She walks in beauty, like the night,” but then the line continues explaining that the night is cloudless and the stars are bright. In lines three and four Byron emphasizes that the unique feature of the woman is her ability to contain opposites within her; “the nest of dark and bright/meet” in her. The joining together of the darkness and the light can be seen in her “aspect,” or appearance, but also in her “eyes.” In this case, the woman’s eyes aren’t to be associated with a physical feature, but more as an internal aspect of her. The eyes reveal her heart. Beginning with line five, the word “meet” is emphasized again as she creates a “tender light,” not the gaudiness of daytime, but a gentler light that even “heaven…denies.” Although this poem begins with the image of a woman walking, there are no images given by Byron of her legs or arms or feet; this is a head poem, confined to hair, eyes, face, cheeks, and brows. In the third stanza, Byron ends the poem with three lines a physical description that lead to the final three lines the woman’s moral characterization. Byron uses many antonyms to describe this woman but still shows a perfect balance within her, often using opposites like darkness and light to create this balance. “She Walks in Beauty” is world renowned for its powerful description. Not onl