Three Important Ideas from She Walks In Beauty by Lord Byron

Within this passage the central idea of “beauty” is developed by Crommelynck’s explanation of beauty and its application to art, and more specifically, poetry. Crommelynck’s description of the beauty develops the idea because it gives an understanding of how wide the scope is for something to be beautiful. She also explains that beauty cannot be created and how it instead resides in something which ties in with her view on truth in art. She believes that if an art form is truthful then beauty can reside in it. This develops on the concept of what beauty

     “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.

The Romantic Period centered on creative imagination, nature, mythology, symbolism, feelings and intuition, freedom from laws, impulsiveness, simplistic language, personal experiences, democracy, and liberty, significant in various art forms including poetry. The development of the self and self-awareness became a major theme as the Romantic Period was seen as an unpredictable release of artistic energy, new found confidence, and creative power found in the writings of the Romantic poets Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shelley, who made a substantial impact on the world of poetry. Two of the Romantic poets, William Blake, and Percy Bysshe Shelley rebelled against convention and authority in search of personal, political and artistic freedom. Blake and Shelley attempted to liberate the subjugated people through the contrary state of human existence prevalent throughout their writings, including Blake’s “The Chimney Sweepers,” from “Songs of Innocence”, “London,” from “Songs of Experience” and Shelley’s A Song: “Men of England.”

Lord Byron, a romantic author from the 18th century was a man who was considered as a “player”, a man who was always with multiple women. In his lifetime Byron wrote many stories, three of those stories were, She Walks In Beauty, Apostrophe To The Ocean, and Don Juan. In those three stories Lord Byron indicates very important messages for each.

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.

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:

Many Romantic poets embrace the concept of self -expression through the use of imagination to convey their personal visions of love and life. The power of emotion is evident in Lord Byron's poems. It can be possible that light can be emitted through the darkness of night. In his poem, "She Walks In Beauty", Lord Byron epitomizes the balance between two opposing forces. The two forces involved are the darkness and the light at work in a woman's beauty both internal and external. Throughout the poem, Byron uses imagery through the visual senses that allows us to observe the symmetry between a woman's beauty and the mixing of the darkness and light.

Two closely related texts, one that we've studied in this class and one that we haven't, that handle natural description differently are Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Lord Byron's "Manfred." Both of these texts' central characters have experienced trauma, and their portrayal of their environments reveal the effects that the events have left on them. While Coleridge's mariner is unable to consolidate his past and is relegated to constantly relive it, Byron's Manfred has protected himself from his unnamed vice by distancing himself from his feelings and environment. Obvious parallels exist between the poems, but what I found most striking

These three lines are perfect examples of the imagery within the poem because they contain an image of a river with its small peeks and waves trembling and glistening in the afternoon sun. All the while it equates the natural beauty of the river to the beauty that the young man sees in the youthful maiden.

Although these poems have conflicting themes, they mutually share an appreciation of nature, specifically the night. In "She Walks in Beauty," the speaker is associating the qualities of a woman to the qualities of a night sky. This simile is introduced instantly in the first line, "She walks in beauty like the night." By doing so, Byron alludes to the comparisons that occur during the remainder of the poem. This leaves the reader wondering how the woman can compare to the night and forces him/her to continue reading. "So We'll Go No More A-Roving" also has the night play a key visual aspect. Byron begins and ends the poem by speaking of the bright moon.

Charlotte Bronte presents Rochester in many different ways. He comes from a rich family, and has a sophisticated personality. His attitude and behavior from the start of the book and the end of it has a dramatic change. Rochester corresponds to the mould of a Byronic Hero however, with his brave and humble actions, he starts to become less attractive as a hero. Moreover, one could argue although he is an unconventional hero he is appealing in both physical and mental ways. However, another could argue against this and find no attractive views of Rochester.

The poem ?She Walks in Beauty? came by as an inspiration to the author. This

Though not named, the writer, Byron seeks to captivate the essence of a mysterious woman’s beauty through his almost fairy-tale description of her. Written in the 1700s at a time when women were expected to be delicate and assume the role of puppets for their puppeteer men, the woman was juxtaposed between conventional and unconventional norms of beauty. The first line is one such example of him describing her beauty in unconventional terms. ‘She walks in beauty, like the night’ Night is not normally described as being beautiful; writers usually attribute adjectives such as scary, dark, lonely and cold to night. Hence, from the beginning, Byron grabbed the reader’s attention by letting his audience know that this beauty was not just the usual

The major writers in Romanticism are Percy Shelly, Lord Byron, John Keats, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I will be examining two second generation Romantic poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelly, I have chosen to examine the poems; She walks in beauty, and A Lament based on the ideas most valued by Romantic poets; Love and beauty, and youth and inevitable death.

Never in my entire life have I heard of this poem. It came to my attention the first time in class. After researching on the Internet about the author, who is known as Lord Byron, an English poet from the romantic period. The poem is a description of a beautiful woman, whom Byron acquainted, at a ball while meeting his cousin by marriage. Her unusual beauty struck Byron and the poem was written the morning after. It is said that “She walks in beauty” is one of Byron’s most famous piece.