Poem: She Walks in Beauty

By: Lord Byron(George Gorden)

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Presented by

Dr. K. D. Bompilwar,

Head, Department of English,GSGC

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About the Poet

• Lord Byron was a British Romantic poet and satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. He became famous by the autobiographical poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812–18)

About the Poem

• "She Walks in Beauty" is a famous poem by British Romantic poet Lord Byron.
• first published in 1815.
• The poem praises and seeks to capture a sense of the beauty of a particular woman who is not named.
• The speaker compares this woman to a lovely night with a clear starry sky, and goes on to convey her beauty as a harmonious "meeting" between darkness and light.
• After its discussion of physical attractiveness, the poem then portrays this outer beauty as representative of inner goodness and virtue.

Stanza 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 mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

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Vocabulary

1. climes = climate

2. aspect = face

3. mellowed = soft and rich

4. tender = soft/ light

5. gaudy = bright

Explanation

• The poem praises and seeks to capture a sense of the beauty of a particular woman. The speaker compares this woman to a lovely night with a clear starry sky, and goes on to convey her beauty as a harmonious "meeting" between darkness and light.
• Her eyes are beautiful with the perfect combination of dark and light
• Her face is pleasant, tender and softening like night.

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Conti…

• Her beauty is compared with the beauty of night with mild appearance and tenderness of her personality.
• The heaven has bestowed this beauty upon the night
• The beauty that is denied by god to the day as it is bright and gaudy.

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Stanza II

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired 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.

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Vocabulary

1. impaired = handicapped

2. Grace = beauty

3. Raven = a black bird ( here,colour of hair)

4. Tress = lock of hair

5. Serenely = silently

6. Dwelling = living place

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Explanation

The relationship between this outer loveliness and the woman's inner self is shown. The woman’s face is portrayed as the site on which her thoughts are “expressed.” These thoughts, are “serenely sweet”

that is, since she is so lovely, her thoughts must also be lovely.

Indeed, the expression of her thoughts on her face serves to reinforce the purity and “dearness” of their “dwelling-place.”

Stanza III

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!

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Vocabulary

1. Eloquent = graceful
2. Tints = light colour

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Explanation

The third stanza focused on the relationship between inner and outer beauty.

The speaker lists the woman’s fine features—her “cheek,” “brow,” “smiles,” and “tints” (skin)—and suggests that they express an inner goodness. In other words, her good looks are the sign of good virtues: the speaker believes that woman spends her days in “goodness,” has a peaceful mind, and a loving, innocent heart.

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