She Walks in Beauty

• "Where thoughts serenely sweet express."

  • soothing sibilance
  • beginning to discuss relationship between outer beauty and inner self
• "Nameless grace."

  • religious language
  • her beauty is almost beyond language
• "One shade the more, one ray the less."

  • juxtaposition
  • shows the intricate balance of the woman's beauty
• "All that's best of dark and bright."

  • juxtaposition
  • shows the intricate balance of the woman's beauty
• "She walks in beauty, like the night."

  • caesura allows reader to reflect on her beauty
  • establishes speaker's awe of her beauty
  • her beauty is so vast and impressive that it seems to surround her like an aura
• "Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

  • even daylight is inferior to her
  • her beauty is almost supernatural
  • her beauty is exclusive to heaven
• Written by Lord Byron who was a politician, a Romantic poet and had traveled across Europe.
• Written in the 19th Century.
• FORM

  • 3 stanzas, each 6 lines line - typically form for hymns (religious imagery)
  • each stanza dedicated to a specific aspect of the woman's beauty
  • ABABAB rhyme scheme - regular, reinforces themes of harmony, mirrors antithesis of light and dark
• LINKS TO GATSBY

  • the woman is the object of desire (Daisy) but the speaker does not pursue her like Gatsby, he only appreciates her
  • the idealised love that Gatsby has for Daisy
• CRITIC (AO5)

  • feminist critics argue that this poem is an objectification of the woman as it mostly focuses on her physical beauty and her characteristics are merely assumptions of the speaker