An Explication of She Walks in Beauty Essay

    As the time passes she can clearly see the woman in the paper. The woman in the paper is quiet and peaceful during the day, but at night she is imprisoned by the bars in the paper. This is reflection helps the narrator identify her own bars--her husband John. He is away during the day and at home in the same bed with her at night. She also identifies with the woman in the paper by sharing their similar routine. "At night in any kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be"..."by daylight she is subdued, quiet. I fancy its the pattern that keeps her so still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me quiet by the hour".

     “She Walks in Beauty” starts off from a traditional picture of a lady as fair and bright. It links with the brightness of daylight, in its comparison of the mistress to the night. “The distinctive quality of the poem derives not from any departure from the norm but from a graceful elaboration of the conventions of compliment” (Seifter, 82). Avoiding unoriginal or obvious similies, Byron uses metaphors which expresses the idea of a quiet and slight glow. “The mistress like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies” (ll 1-2), not pitch dark but glimmering with a diffused light” (Seifter, 82). She is like a portrait in “chiaroscuro”, her face is copied through an interaction of light and shadow.

“Beauty” by Tony Hoagland was written in 1998. In this poem, Hoagland expresses his feelings on how women care too much about physical appearances. Throughout his poem he tells the story through the eyes of a brother of a girl who learns to love herself for who she is. Hoagland’s poem stresses the importance that beauty goes deeper than the surface. Throughout his poem, Tony Hoagland uses many literary devices to perfect his poem. These devices include the message, tone, imagery, figures of speech, and personification.

In the poem, Symons uses imagery to portray the theme. When describing the setting in the first stanza, Symons writes, “Through the tumultuous night of London”(3). When describing the setting, the reader can better picture in their head what the author was trying to show. In this case, the poet is describing the noisy streets in london at night. This relates to the theme because midnight can be seen as a “romantic hour”, which shows that lovers would be out and about at that time. Another example of imagery in the poem is when the poet continues to describe the setting in the first stanza when he writes, “In the miraculous April weather”(4). This helps the reader to understand the setting of the poem. When using this imagery, it helps set the mood of the poem, which is passionate. It helps the reader to better comprehend the poem as a whole. The poet is describing the April weather as miraculous, which means the weather is astounding and amazing, which can connect to the way he feels about the other individual in the poem. He feels strongly about the other individual and the reader can interpret he has deep feelings for her or he might even love her. Another example of imagery in the poem is when the poet is describing the way he feels in the weather in the third stanza when he writes, “After the heat and the fumes and the footlights”(11). In this line, he is describing a stage where his lover is dancing. His lover is dancing on the stage, which can show how women can be very graceful. This helps the reader to better understand not only the setting, but the person he is describing in the poem. He seems to be entranced by this woman, which can relate how she brings him happiness and fulfillment. Symons uses imagery in the

The narrator of the poem begins with stating that “some kind of shadow was behind her/ she ran towards nowhere/ dark, empty, cold, stuck.” The poem depicts the

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

In Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, her view of beauty changes through different stages of her life. In her childhood Walker has a misunderstanding of beauty. She is concerned with superficial signs of beauty and fails to appreciate her inner beauty. A tragic mishap as a young child leaves her right eye blind and deformed. She enters a period of depression her life, living her life in shame and disappointment because she believes her beauty to be lost. Even getting surgery as an adult doesn’t help defeat her demons. She continues to struggle until she finds her inner beauty through her daughter’s love. As a child, Alice Walker got her definition of beauty from her family, in her teens she turned to her peers to define beauty, her perception finally changed again in adulthood when she discovered an inner beauty.

A person’s perception of anything is always influenced by their experiences. Alice Walker, the writer of “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self”, is no different in regards to her perception of beauty. Walker uses various stylistic elements throughout her writing to convey her shifting outlook toward her own beauty. She also employs various rhetorical strategies in order to deliver a clear and luring story that keeps the reader engaged as she describes her life as a flashback. Walker uses the accident that happens during her childhood to prove that one’s mindset can be altered because of a profound experience and how her attitude completely transforms from a conceited and arrogant child into a newly reborn woman who sees a new kind of

her far from herself. In one line in the poem she brings us starkly into the world of a

Born in 1788, George Gordon Byron, commonly known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and one of the most famous poets of the romantic era. Romanticism was one of the most influential poetic movements in which brought Lord Byron into the literary forefront. Although he has many famous literary works, She Walks in Beauty is one of his most favourable poems. The poem was inspired by a woman wearing a mourningful dress whilst at a ball. Love is the overarching theme, focusing mainly on captivating love. This is seen by the overwhelming sense of his attention that is captivated by her and the fact that the woman seems unobtainable. Through his work, Lord Byron captured the reader's attention through the way he used literary devices and the way he represented different gender representations through the nature of love.

Byron has written many different poems. Imagery is one of Byron's’ major skills that he possesses in his poetry. Byron uses powerful imagery in “The Destruction of Sennacherib” and concentrates on making the scene as clear as day; he uses similes based on natural occurrences to captivate the reader and to pull the reader into his poem.

The second stanza of Lord Byron's poem focuses on the woman's perfect face. The beautiful shades and rays of the womans complexion make her a “nameless grace” (2, 2). This conveys the idea that her inner beauty is reflected in her outer beauty in the sense that she is pure and innocent on the inside so she radiates that beauty on the outside. This stanza reveals her serene thoughts:

The power of love and emotion is evident in Lord Byron's poems, "She Walks in Beauty" and "So We'll Go No More A-Roving." Because of their consecutive placement in the book, "She Walks in Beauty" and "So We'll Go No More A-Roving" tell a story of a relationship. In the first poem, "She Walks in Beauty," the speaker glimpses a beautiful woman who reminds him of "the night" and "starry skies." Throughout the piece, the speaker is fascinated by her beautiful facial features. The last stanza summarizes this beautifully when he comments on her "eloquent" characteristics. In the last half of the story, "So We'll Go No More A-Roving," however, the speaker is losing the sparks of passion that he once had for his lover. This is largely

The speaker speaks about how she loved to see like everyone else but can't do that anymore. The speaker almost feels sorry for herself because she can no longer see she has been put in the darkness and doesn't fight for her light. In the poem the speaker says “ for mine to look at when I liked, the news would strike me dead, so safer guess with just my soul upon the window pane where other creatures put their eyes”. The quote shows how the speaker thinks she will never see again. The speaker also talks about how, where her eye should be her soul is there. This means that she thinks that now that she is in the darkness she is weak and people can see her weaknesses because before her eyes protect people from seeing her

Throughout the entire poem, we see Conrad use this mysterious, quiet power to his advantage because he cannot rely on his body, the way that many men do. Byron appears to be weaving parts of himself into Conrad’s character, developing Conrad as a character while at the same time, reflecting on himself.