FREE ESSAY ON SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

She Walks in Beauty
George Gordon Noel Byron's poem titled, She Walks in Beauty, plainly put, is a love poem
about a beautiful woman and all of her features. The poem follows a basic iambic
tetrameter with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable that allows for a
rhythm to be set by the reader and can be clearly seen when one looks at a line:
She walks / in beau / ty like / the night. 
T.S. Eliot, an American poet criticizes Byron's work by stating the poem, needs to be
read very rapidly because if one slows down the poetry vanishes and the rhyme is forced
(Eliot 224). With this rhythm the reader can, however, look deeper into the contents of
Byron's poem and discover a battle of two forces. The two forces involved in Byron's poem
are the darkness and light- at work in the woman's beauty, and also the two areas of her
beauty-the internal and the external. 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 (Leung 312). This fact, the black dress that was brightened with
spangles, helps the reader to understand the origin of the poem. Byron portrays this, the
mixing of the darkness and the light, not by describing the dress or the woman's actions,
but by describing her physical beauty as well as her interior strengths. 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. So immediately the poem brings together its two opposing forces that are at
work, darkness and light.
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(Martin
24). L.C. Martin, from the University of Nottingham, also writes that Byron, emphasizes
the unique feature of this woman to contain opposites within her,(24) therefore agreeing
with the concept that not only is there a struggle between the darkness and the light,
but also within the woman.
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 does not bestow
an the day. The night can be thought of in terms of irrationality and the day in terms or
reason and neither day nor night is pleasing, only the meeting of the two extremes in
this woman.
In the second stanza, once again, the opposites are combined. Shade or darkness is
combined with day or light, and raven tress or dark hair is linked with a lightened face.
If the woman contained with in her and in her appearance either a little bit more of
darkness or a little bit more of light, she would be half impaired. A key word in this
section is grace. Although Byron continuously talks about appearances, in actuality he is
referring to the nameless grace that is in her hair and face. Once again, it is something
internal as well as external that is so attractive about this woman. 
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. The conclusion to the second stanza contains insight into the dwelling
place of the woman's thoughts, creating an insight into her mind by using alliteration.
The repetition of the s sounds is soothing in the phrase serenely sweet express, because
Byron is referring to her thoughts, and her thoughts are serene and pure(25). 
In the third and final stanza, Byron concludes the poem with three lines a physical
description that lead to the final three lines the woman's moral characterization. The
soft cheeks, the winning smile, the tints in the skin eloquently express not only
physical beauty, but they also attest to her morality. The physical beauty, the speaker
can conclude, reflects days spent doing well, a mind at peace, and a heart whose love is
innocent!
Byron convinces the reader that this woman is perfect. If any one aspect of her were to
be different, she would be half-impaired. Byron uses many antonyms to describe this woman
but still portrays a perfect balance within her, often using opposites like darkness and
light to create this balance. As L.C. Martin states, Whether Byron would have preferred a
less innocent cousin, someone with whom he could enjoy Byronic passions, is left unspoken
for the reader to decipher(25). Without the two forces and the struggle within this
woman, Byron's poem would have been a plain love poem, but because the forces are so
pronounced by his use of colorful language, rhythm, and use of human characteristics, She
Walks in Beauty is world renowned for its powerful description. Not only does it describe
a woman's physical beauty, but also her interior strengths. 
Works Cited
Eliot, T.S., Byron, in On Poetry and Poets, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1957, 
p.224.
Martin, L.C., in Byron's Lyrics, The University of Nottingham, 1948, pp. 24-25.
Leung, Mathew, preface to Poetry of Byron, by Lord Byron, Macmillian, 1881,
Reprinted as Byron, in Essays in Criticism, Dutton, 1964, pp. 312-30.