March 4, 2022

From Gerald R. Lucas
Revision as of 10:46, 4 March 2022 by Grlucas (talk | contribs) (Fixed typo.)
She Walks in Beauty[1]
By: Lord Byron (1814)

She walks in beauty, like the night[2]
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright[3]
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!

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Notes & Comentary
  1. ↑ Byron wrote this poem about his cousin Anne Wilmot and their first meeting at a ball. It was the first poem of Hebrew Melodies, a collection of lyrics about Old Testament themes that were meant to accompany composer Isaac Nathan’s music.
  2. ↑ Anne Wilmot wore a black, sparkly dress when Byron first saw her. In this poem, Byron feminizes the night, endowing it with an attraction and beauty that “gaudy day denies.”
  3. ↑ A synecdoche of Bryon’s own “paradoxical nature” that defines the Byronic hero and his writing (Pesta 2004, p. 59). Darkness and light interplay throughout the poem, suggesting a paradoxical attraction of theme and subject, inverting, perhaps, a traditional morality that associates beauty and goodness with light.
Works Cited
  • Pesta, Duke (2004). "'Darkness Visible': Byron and the Romantic Anti-Hero". In -last=Bloom, Harold. Lord Byron. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. pp. 59–.
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