1
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
2
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;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
3
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Firstly I want to say that I really liked that poem.I don't know what the reason is exactly.Maybe because it conveys what it wants to say obviously or the effective and enchanting description of a women that is probably not so charming.When we take into consideration 'raven tress' and 'grace' in second stanza it may seem to be quaint to us.Byron compares the woman with a crow!Actually it may be a reflection and it can be so romantic to Byron.According to Byron a normal women can turn out to be a beautiful women and trivial things can be important.
ReplyDeleteIn the third stanza:In the woman's darkness we can find both beauty and innocence.we can also find something about moral character of the women 'whose love is innocent' and'a mind at peace'
This is a very interesting poem because it starts with:"She walks in beauty like the night." From this sentence we understand that she is extremely beautiful.But when we continue to read we see that she is not beautiful.Even he similes her to a raven.However when we continue we see that he is talking about inner beauty.She is so innocent that he sees her inner beauty when he looks her.In the poem readers can see the different understanding of beauty and love...
ReplyDeleteTo be honest,I didn't like the poem very much because I couldn't find great imaginations or perfect lines that I will never forget. While I was reading the first lines,what come up to me was the lines of a song : pretty woman,walking down the street...It is just the same story,a woman and a lover..actually I would prefer to read Shakespeare if I am to read a poem about love.Pure,soft,innocent..Even the words are so typical.Don't know why,I couldn't give a big value to this poem.Sorry Byron :)
ReplyDeleteGKhn ozkan
When I read that poem, I noticed that love something different. According to the descriptions of the poet, I do not think that she is very beautiful but the power of the love makes everything seem perfect.Love isn't focused on only external beauty but also heart has huge importance. When somebody falls in love, loved one always has good combination of opposite things in itself.
ReplyDeleteSEDEF KONUK
ReplyDeletethe poem is really admirable. but reading style, sounds, tone etc. are the things that makes a poem colorful. when I listened and watch the video whose link was given below, I took pleasure out of it much more. It is from the Phantom of the Opera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhFnNnse10Q&NR=1&feature=fvwp
ÖznurÖztürk
ReplyDeleteI have found the background information of the poem from the internet.(ezinarticles.com)It affected me.It helps us to understand the poem better.Here it is;
''In June, 1814, several months before he met and married his first wife, Anna Milbanke, Lord Byron attended a party at Lady Sitwell’s. While at the party, Lord Byron was inspired by the sight of his cousin, the beautiful Mrs. Wilmot, who was wearing a black spangled mourning dress. Lord Byron was struck by his cousin’s dark hair and fair face, the mingling of various lights and shades. This became the essence of his poem about her.
According to his friend, James W. Webster, "I did take him to Lady Sitwell’s party in Seymour Road. He there for the first time saw his cousin, the beautiful Mrs. Wilmot. When we returned to his rooms in Albany, he said little, but desired Fletcher to give him a tumbler of brandy, which he drank at one to Mrs. Wilmot’s health, then retired to rest, and was, I heard afterwards, in a sad state all night. The next day he wrote those charming lines upon her—She walks in Beauty like the Night…"
Jiyan Taher :
ReplyDeleteWe saw two opposite words together in this poem for describing the same thing, which is beauty of a woman” She walks in beauty, like the night/Thus mellowed to that tender light”. We know that generally night is associated to evil and darkness. Maybe because his beauty dressed in black, or he wants to show that even the darkest things have beauty in them, and even through the darkness of night, light and beauty can still be emitted.
Tülay Örücü
ReplyDeleteWe have to be careful about the enjamned lines.She is like a night(which is associated with darkness and evil), but when we are caredful about the enjamned lines.-->
She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies.
Being compared to a cloudless, starry night is not that bad,I think =)
I think this is really an interesting poem. Poet uses paradox when he describes his lover. I think he loves her very much and sees her in a very romantic and emotional way.
ReplyDeleteShe walks in beauty, like the night
of cloudlessclimes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright...
I think here, he says that she is like night but a beautiful, starry night. She is dark and like night and this shows her mystery and dignity. She is bright because she is as beautiful as the stars that decorate the sky in dark nights. This is really a romantic describtion a woman and so impressing.
I agree with my friend, Gökhan. Because as he said poet explain his feelings in a very straight way. I think he can use more imaginative things. Because normally we look at his other poems like Darkness, On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth year, we can see more affective writing tan this poem.
ReplyDeletethis is the one of the best poems I have ever read. the poet is talking about his darling we understand from the poem that she is not so beatiful but love makes her beatiful. he accepts her as she is. he loves her. he sees her as pure and dear person.
ReplyDelete"where thoughts serenely sweet express
how pure, how dear their dwelling place"The subtle glow of light gives the speaker a rather inspired feeling but at the same time a feeling a bit overcome by emotion. He over-reaches to express his feelings, hoping to communicate in fresh phrasings; thus, he focuses not on how she looks but how she walks. He imagines her walking on a clear night with all the stars subtly lighting her way, playing upon her visage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoZtw_mxTOg&NR=1&feature=fvwp
you can watch and listen the song form of this poem from the link above. it really effect me when i listened.
GULNOZA NURULLAEVA
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to find this (it is actually a part of an essay, not just a comment) on the internet:
"Lord George Gordon Byron was most notorious for his love affairs within his family and with Mediterranean boys. Since he had problems such as incest and homosexuality, he did not mind writing about his love for his cousin"
To me Byron's sexual orientation is really shocking and i think that he was inspired by his cousin's beauty to write the poem because before writing the poem he attended a party and was struck by her beautiful, black hair and etc.
Fatma Kaya
ReplyDeleteThe poem starts with:"She walks in beauty like the night." If She is like a night which is associated with darkness how she walks in such a beauty. There is a contrast in here I think. And this conflict continues in the second and third lines also ‘Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright’ gives us the idea that such a lady includes amongst her qualities light and darkness, good and evil, she is a mixture of both.
acoording to me you can see the stars best when it is the darkest time of the sky.lORD Byron see his beloved as night because he sees her beauties when see he sees dark sides of the beloved.Night and the beauty are not contrastive things.Ilile this poem because the imagination of beloved as not only beautiful but have a innocent heart which is full of love.
ReplyDeletehere,poet talks abut a beauty that combines both darkness and bright.
ReplyDeletehe talks about an ordinary woman.
he doesnt talk about a standart woman beauty.
his lover has a beauty inside. and moral values.
her appearance and her smiling, her eyes all indicate that there is a life that spent with purity and innosence. and he says her love doesnt give him pain.
she walks in the beauty...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKRkQP2JeEs
The poem is rather different from its counterparts because this was the first poem which introduced female figure in a different way. It is not only the physical appearance that is depicted but also her inner aspects. With the lines
ReplyDelete"And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes"
we see that the female here has also a really dark side which Byron considered worthy of mention.
She Walks In Beauty
ReplyDeleteShe walks in beauty is a poem written by Lord Byron. As the title suggests, the poem is the portrayal of a lady. The verb “walk” which is stated in the title carries a significant connotation of advancing in space but also in time. In other words, we cannot just restrict this word into the movement of walking, we can further this idea in the same line with progression of time. The main figure of the poem is the lady, this importance is given capitalizing whole pronoun SHE.
In the poem, it is possible to encounter the dual dimensions which put forward entailment of two contrastive features. Let us look at the following quotation;
“And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes”
Quotation stated above marks the idea of dualism through the words like light and darkness, good and evil. However, she is the mixture of both. Moreover, the author tells how her face and her eyes are and opposition appears again in the sense that woman’s eyes depict dark and the light. Therefore, it is reasonable to deduce that beauty is bright but also dark. Furthermore, beauty is something that is mysterious but also it is something which is clear.
Another example of dualism is given through contrastive way. In the last two lines;
“A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent”
‘Mind’ and ‘heart’ are given as a reference to the everlasting separation of feelings and thoughts. They are two concepts which cause disintegrity in the human soul since these concepts contrast with each other. In other words, mind and heart cannot co-exist.
Apart from dualisms, I have focused on the word choice and clarity of the poem so I came up with a conclusion that suggests; since the beauty is simple and it can be understood without difficulty, the poem is written in a simple way to be understood easily like beauty.
Another significant point is about the external and internal beauty;
“Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place”
It is stated that her raven tress and her face are illuminated. Moreover, Byron asserts that her thoughts are serene, pure and sweet. Therefore, Byron claims that external beauty is related to internal one.
To sum , this poem is the reflection of the beauty by the eminent poet Lord Byron. According to me, the author’s contribution in the depiction of this poem cannot be ignored. Because, the idea of beauty was illustrated effectively and clearly with all of its details. Moreover, the combination of the opposites, declaration of love statements were implicit and left to us to infer the implied meaning from the text.
Hazar Başkani
ReplyDeleteBefore making any comment, I want to say that there are lots of biographical information about Lord Byron and his poem “She Walks in Beauty” but as I learn, I am not interested in this kind of biographical information.
Initially, I pick some words while reading such as beauty, night, gaudy, tender, raven dark, bright, softly, serenely, pure, calm, eloquent, peace, innocent. And please circle them in a bubble. Now, you are looking at a world of contrasts. I think this is the possibilities of impossibilities. While I am reading, I am confused and mixed. “She walks in beauty, like the night.” This keeps something under the surface. Together with the following lines, I understand that if you want to see the light, first you should have a dark sky or the more darkness is, the more powerful will be. In fact, if darkness had not been, we could not have noticed the light. You can ask: what does “she” refer to? Methinks, Lord Byron uses the world of contrasts for “she.” As we learnt before, this is the imagination that appeals to our sense perception. For example; in second stanza, a pure face comes into our eyes but this face is different I mean it is not an ordinary one. And finally in third stanza, Byron says “so soft, so calm, yet eloquent.” This is also supporting figure for my idea. Because she is eloquent one, furthermore, the last lines were very effective. Byron uses irony, we are expected different things from darkness, light or gaudy day, raven tress, however, they refer to innocence, softness. This is called as oxymoron.
In conclusion, Lord Byron’s concept of beauty differs from the others and this is explained in a tone filled by ironies. The poem makes you surprised and welcomes you another world, a world of contrasts.
Lord Byron starts his poem with pronoun “SHE” in capital letters. At the first sight, the capital letters attracted me that I clearly recognize how he regards and how he cares for his lover. As far as we know, authors and poets use capital letters in order to highlight what they mean and point out the significance of that Word. Here, “SHE” in capital letters indicates Byron’s deep love for his wife or partner, I deduce.
ReplyDeleteIn the first stanza, Byron likens the lady to the night. Byron does not state the darkness of the night or its depth, but he underlines “the night of cloudless climes and starry skies”. The night is so pure, clear and fresh that Byron instantly refers to his lover’s beauty, brilliance and purity. The darkness of the night reminds him his lover’s courtesy by alleviating him.
Byron’s lover has the best of everything, I infer. She has this excellence in her eyes, in her aspect and in her stance. She has the “best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes”.
In the second stanza, I see that Byron’s love is so beautiful and pure that he cannot define it and name any features of this beauty. That is why, he calls it “nameless, grace”. In this nameless grace, everything is in a harmony and so well-arranged that if he adds “one shade the more” or “one ray the less”, he will disrupt her beauty. Here, he states how she is in a harmony. And her hair, her “raven tress” dancing with the waves emphasizes the brilliance of her face. Moreover, Byron really wonders what kind of thoughts she has in her mind that she is so serene and sweet, “how pure, how dear”.
In the third stanza, Byron stresses that he realizes how she seems calm and soothing through her expressions. Maybe, he observes how her changes when she smiles or tells something. However, no matter what she does, “the smiles” on her face, “the tints that glow” and the tranquility of the lady are so much obvious “on that cheek and o’er that brow”.
As far as Byron guesses, the smiles that she bears on her face refer to the idea that she has spent her days “in goodness”. This demonstrates that she is beautiful and perfect in terms of both her appearance and mind. She has “a mind at peace with all below”. Here again, Byron points out that she is so calm that she gets on well with everyone, and never shows opposition or keeps an aggressive stance.
Final line repetitively stresses the beauty, serenity of the lady. By telling “a heart whose love is innocent”, Byron refers to her innocence as well as beauty. Her heart is so pure that the love she has is never selfish or an affected one.
In “She Walks in Beauty”, although I do not know whether “SHE” refers to his wife, partner, platonic lover or someone whom he is not acquainted with, although I do not get a clear and certain implication whether he really and deeply loves her or just admires, I completely appreciate Byron’s use of language in order to tell about someone. His similes are so strong that it has been inevitable for me to draw an image of the lady in my mind and have even a slightest idea about her.
It has been pleasure for me to witness a poem which is so strong in language and so deep in meaning…
She walks in beauty is a poem written by Lord Byron and the poem, according to some records, is written when Lord Byron saw his cousin in a party. However, I would like to analyze this poem in another perspective.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the poem, I imagine a woman who has been through many troubles and sufferings alone without any guidance of her relatives or beloved ones and she survives acknowledging her power against darkness of life. Despite the sufferings and troubles she has been through, Lord Byron is drawing a Picture of a woman who is still beautiful and looking young. However, the internal beauty and power of the woman is more emphasized by the poet. The physical beauty is used in order to illustrate the real internal beauty.
“She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies”
These two lines create an image of woman whose turbulent life has changed into a tranquil life. The term “night” is the darkness full of grief and sufferings that the woman had to be through. There is a description of a powerful woman against this darkness. Her power is described as cloudless and starry skies.
“And all that best dark and bright”
This line is the description of the duality. Although darkness surrounds the woman, she fights against the darkness because she was bright enough to fade away the darkness. Byron sees the fight of bright and darkness in woman’s eyes.
“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..”
No matter how young and beautiful she looks, the effects of the darkness that woman has been through still can be seen on her face when one shade falls upon her raven tress and impairs the nameless grace. Byron is still dealing with the internal beauty of that woman and says:
“…thoughts serenely sweetly express
How pure how dear their dwelling-place.”
The last two lines is the description of the woman’s life which was once turbulent and now is tranquil.
“A mind at peace will all below
A heart whose love is innocent.”
Throughout the poem, one can examine the description of a woman who became aware of life, reality of life and who acknowledged herself and the power inside to fight against the darkness of life. Although the language of the poem is simple and understandable, it is very effective. I believe this poem is the most powerful and influential poem among other poems of its time.
NurBanu KARAMAN
She Walks in Beauty was written by Lord Byron. Byron is adressing a woman wallking in a beauty like a cloudless and starring night. I can understand that this woman is beautiful as a starring night. It gives me sense of woman’s extraordinary beauty. I think the poet tries to say that even the darkest things in life have beauty when we make more effort to see. She is like a night but she is very beautiful. She is bright because she is as beautiful as stars in dark nights. This description is reflection of romanticism. The poet is describing the woman extraordinarily.
ReplyDeleteTheme of darkness appears in night contrary to light which is expressed by the stars of the sky. Beauty is dark and also it is light, in other words beauty is both visible and unvisible.
“And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes (lines 3,4).
From these lines I can understand that our poet is describing the woman’s face and eyes. Her face and eyes are both dark and bright. Beauty is sometimes unseen. The most important and rewarding thing is to make more efforts to see unvisible and dark part of the beauty.
“Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.” (lines 5,6)
There is an opposition in here again.
“One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace” (lines 7,8)
These lines starts with the woman’s beauty. According to our poet, she is flawless. Her beauty is so perfect that it cannot have an name.
“Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place” (lines 9,10,11,12)
Our poet is describing the woman’s face in a soft way. There is a connection between her thoughts and her physical beauty. Both of them are pure, sweet. According to me, physical beauty and internal beauty are co-existed together. They cannot be seperated from each other. The beauty is described as dark from one perspective. Dark one represents the internnal beauty of woman. Even if it takes longer time, we have to make effort to see internal beauty of human being to understand them better.
“And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent”
The last stanza starts with physical appearance of the woman. He describes in a detailed way. There is sense of kindness in description. Her smiles give me sense of happiness. Her physical beauty stems from her inner beauty. Her physical beauty is a reflection of her inner beauty which is mysterious, invisible.
To conclude, this poem gives me sense of beauty and purity that is based on dark and light. When external beauty and inner beauty come together, then there is perfection.
At first glance, she walks in beauty looks like a simple love poem where everything is lovely, but with the help of the second reading, I find myself in the world of dualism. Byron led me to a dual beauty which, I think, enriched the poem.
ReplyDeleteEvidences of this dualism are reflected in the poem. For example, in the third line, “and all that’s best of dark and bright” shows that the lady includes amongst her qualities, light and darkness, good and evil. She is the mixture of both. So Byron does not only give a positive and idealized point of view, but being a Romantic description, it is also a profound and realistic one. Another interesting dualism is in the fifth line. “mellow’d” gives us her qualities of mature and experienced beauty. It is in the contrast with the last word of the poem, “innocent”.
Byron gives us a mixture of several dual elements which has taken me to a more realistic and complete vision of the conception of a lady that the author has. It is not a simple vision where everything is lovely, positive and innocent. It is more of a contrast between two realities: mind and heart, experience and innocence, physical and psychological. Byron’s words work together to celebrate the beauty.
Özgül Yazıcı
ReplyDeleteThis poem is written by Lord Byron and it is about a girl who is told to be a very beautiful lady like a lot of beauties in the world such as the night with starry skies.
In the first stanza, we can understand that there is a very beautiful woman in the world; she is so beautiful that the poet describes her differently from the other girls. She is likened to the beauties of the night, and she is described with the contrasts; dark and bright. She has the characteristics of both dark and bright; she is beautiful in every situation. She may have dark eyes in her bright face; maybe the poet tries to give this detail in a different way to appeal us.
The light in the fifth line may be the beam of the moonlight and I understand that the days are jealous of this moonlight so they do not want her. The girl is like moonlight and she is more beautiful than the day light.
In the second stanza, everything is in so balance that even one of them becomes more or the other is taken away everything gets worse and she is so beautiful that the poet cannot name it except telling the nameless grace. If the ray in her face or the shade in her eyes increase or decrease she may lose her beauty.
Her thoughts are seem as bright as her face; they are more pure than everything. The poet, in this stanza, gives both her physical beauty and her beautiful thoughts like her face. Her thoughts are innocent like her beauty.
In the last stanza, her face and lines on her face are so calm and soft. When she smiles every feature on her face gets bright and bright and that may make the others be jealous of her. Because her face, her thoughts and her love are innocent and when you see her you feel the peace in yourself. She is kind girl and it can be understood as looking her face and seeing her purity.
As a result, the poet describes this beautiful woman not only with her physical appearance but also with her ideas, pure thoughts which show her face more bright and beautiful.
When I read the poem, I supposed that Lord Byron described a woman who he fell in love. However,I realized that "she" refers to two things for me. First one is a woman , second is nature. As I stated before, he made the potray of the women.He explains her qualities and physical appearance. Lord Byron uses a few opposite adjectives to express his feeling such as "dark and bright". He uses dualism in this poem cause this dualism creates the wholeness of the lady.On the other hand, if we look from romantic point of view, "she" may refer to nature. As we know that Lord Byron is the supporter of romantic view. In the poem, he could explain what nature makes feel him. Lord Byron decribes nature's both negative and positive way because she has many opposites in itself. Again, dualism comes into appear. Actuaaly, life consists of contradistinctive things and these opposite things help to make balance in our life and the sense of unity. So,Lord Byron shows us that nature sometimes shows her negative face, sometimes positive one.
ReplyDeleteTUĞBA ÖZCAN
The poem depicts a woman in a very beautiful way. It tells about both her appearance and witty and also, her spiritual aspect. In the first stanza, the poet uses both positive and negative elements to reflect the beauty of the woman such as dark and bright or dark and light. He has gotten so impressed by her beauty that he compares her walking in beauty to a glorious night having starry sky and cloudless clime. The nights having stars and no clouds are always attractive and impressive. They make people think and bring the deepest thoughts and feelings of them to light and relieve them. That is, nights are dark but pretty so she is looked like a night. In the second stanza, it is stated that her beauty is perfect and balanced. If the balances between shade and ray change, this will harm to her grace. And also in this stanza, it is mentioned about her inner world where there are dear and innocent thoughts. These are reflected on her face and with her expressions. Shortly, here is stated both her physical and inner beauties. In the last stanza, each line on her face is narrated in a perfect manner; her cheek, brow and smiles give to her an extra beautifulness. Then, the poet shows the purity of her heart and love in his lines. He gives some messages about her inner world, and her good heart by using the words of ‘innocent’ and ‘peace’.
ReplyDeletewhat do you think he is feeling while he is writing this?
ReplyDelete