she walks in beauty

• She Walks in Beauty

  A poem by Lord Byron about a narrator who is in awe of the beauty and purity of a woman he has seen
• Although this seems like a love poem, the narrator never actually states that he loves the lady. Instead, the poem focusses on appearance.
• Key themes of the poem

  • Morality
  • Desire
  • Nature
• The poem deals with Victorian morality; the poet focusses on the woman's purity, something which was extremely important at the time.
• The poem challenges cliches of love poetry- such as Byron choosing to compare the woman to the night rather than the more conventionally beautiful daytime.
• Lord Byron

  A Romantic poet who had a scandalous and unconventional life
• About Lord Byron's life

  1. Went to Harrow School and Cambridge University

  2. His poem 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' was published in 1812, and Byron became famous overnight

  3. Feeling pressure from his debts and failed marriage, he left England in spring of 1816 and didn't return

  4. He died in Greece, and his body was brought back to England
• Awe

  The narrator is in awe of this woman
• The narrator uses hyperbolic language to describe the woman's beauty. In the first line he uses a simile to compare her to the entire night sky- "Of cloudless climes and starry skies".
• The woman in the poem remains silent. But as the poem progresses, the narrator focusses more on her inner beauty.
• The narrator is claiming by the end of the poem that the woman is beautiful because of her purity, but he is still making this judgement based on her beauty.
• Form and structure of the poem


  • Lots of enjambment and caesura (pauses in a line)
  • The enjambment disrupts the rhythm, and suggests that the narrator is overwhelmed by the woman and can barely express his feelings
• Byron's narrator goes from thinking the woman is beautiful to thinking she is beautiful because she is pure. The poem explores how female sexual purity was highly valued in the 19th century (1800s).
• The narrator focusses on the woman's physical appearance for the first half of the poem, but then shifts to imagining her "thoughts" and imagines that her smile speaks of "days in goodness spent".
• The woman in the poem never speaks, or even seems to have seen the narrator. This means that he can imagine whatever he wants about her and cannot be proved wrong.
• Form of the poem

  • Regular rhyme scheme of ABABAB which reflects the purity of the woman he is describing
• Techniques used in the poem

  • Sibilance and caesura
  • Sibilance creates a soft and sweet tone to reflect the beauty of the woman
  • The narrator thinks the woman is both beautiful and intelligent, this is shown by his use of the word "eloquent"
• The narrator is making this judgement based only on the woman's appearance, which could be seen as shallow (not showing careful thought).
• Byron uses nature to describe the beauty of the woman, this is common in Romantic poetry.
• Gaudy


  Showy and bright
• Byron is saying that the woman's beauty is more delicate and unusual because she is a combination of light and dark.
• Nature imagery used to describe the woman

  • Compared to the "starry skies" and "all that's best of dark and bright"
  • Presented as a miracle of nature - "One shade the more, one ray the less" would have lessened her beauty
  • Juxtaposition of her dark hair and pale face, with the light "softly" touching her face
• Lord Byron: '"She walks in beauty, like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies"'
• Lord Byron: '"And on that cheek, and o'er that brow/ So soft, so calm, yet eloquent."'
• Lord Byron: '"Where thoughts serenely sweet express,/ How pure, how dear their dwelling place."'