She Walks in Beauty. (G.G.Byron)
In this analysis, we will first discuss the meaning of the poem, and later consider some of the poetic mechanisms and the form that the poet used to make his poem richer.
The woman portrayed in this poem must have been truly beautiful to catch Byron’s attention at once, and make him write such a vivid poem. The overall tone of She Walks in Beauty is soft and calm.
The poet praises a woman’s beauty. Yet, the poet not only focuses on the external appearance of the woman but extends his glorification onto the internal aspect of her, making the woman more divine (божественный).
The first stanza of the poem describes the physical appearance of the woman. Byron starts the poem with the phrase “She walks in beauty, like the night/ Of cloudless climes and starry skies;” Here, the poet creates an image of a dark, clear sky with twinkling stars, and makes a contrast between brightness and darkness. This contrast could mean diverse things, such as “black hair” and “white skin”. The image created by this contrast represents the cloth the woman is wearing; a black dress with sparkles on it.
In the next line, “And all that’s best of dark and bright/ Meet in her aspect and her eyes:,” we see how the opposite characteristics of darkness and brightness mentioned in the previous lines reappear to create a wonderful harmony.
In the last two lines of this stanza, we see another contrast in imagery. The darkness and brightness from lines above have “mellowed” to become a “tender light,” and this gets contrasted with the expression “gaudy day,”(яркий, солнечный день) Thus, the woman that the poet is praising is in great balance. Opposites “meet” in the woman to create a calm, soft image.
In the phrase “Had half impaired the nameless grace,”(8) the poet tells us that the woman’s face is in such a perfect portion that just a slight change would damage it. From the expression “half impaired”(разрушенный), we could guess two significant meanings. First, it could mean that although the balance is destroyed, the beauty will still be marvelous because it is not only physical beauty, but the beauty of the inner world and soul. The expression “nameless grace”(8) is also significant. By adding the word “nameless” in front of the word “grace,” the poet enlarged the woman’s beauty and greatness, thereby suggesting it as something so priceless that can’t be defined nor expressed as a name.
We could also understand that the woman has black hair from the expression “Which waves in every raven tress,.”(9) Compared with conventional qualities of “beauty” during the time when Byron wrote this poem, “black hair” which this woman has is extraordinary. This distinctiveness amplifies the woman’s beauty, as she distinguishes herself from others.
Starting from line 11, the poet extends this external beauty onto the woman’s personality.
Lastly, in the last two lines, “Where thoughts serenely sweet express/ How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.,”(11-12) we start to see how the woman’s inner beauty is reflected in her appearance. “Dwelling-place,”(12) which is where the mind and the spirit belong, is also sweet and pure. With this perfect inner quality added to her external beauty, the woman becomes more perfect as she possesses beauty inside out.
The last stanza also talks both about the woman’s inner and outer characteristics. Her cheek and her smiles are beautiful. In the phrases “days in goodness spent,”(16) “mind at peace,”(17) and “heat whose love is innocent,”(18) we understand that the woman’s inner thoughts are also as pure and graceful just as her appearance. As in previous stanzas, he once again shows the theme of this poem, which is the woman’s physical beauty along with her internal beauty.
Now, let’s look at the 4 major poetic mechanisms Byron used in this poem. First, the poet uses personification such as “smiles that win”(15) and “heart whose love is innocent,”(18) to vividly describe the woman’s soft smiles and pure heart. Second, use of similes and metaphors in parts “like the night,”(1) “nameless grace / which waves in every raven trees,”(8-9) the poet compares “grace”(8), the quality of the woman, to an observable phenomenon “raven trees”(9) and makes the portray more clear. Thirdly, Byron also uses metonymies like “smiles”(15) to represent “the woman,” and “heaven”(6) to represent “god.” Lastly, to give the poem a smooth flow, the poet uses alliteration in parts such as “cloudless climes,”(2) “starry skies,”(2) “day denies,”(6) and “serenely sweet.”(11) These intended usages of words contribute also in deepening the meaning of the words. We could associate the sound of “starry skies,”(2) represented by the sound ‘s,’ with the woman’s skirt dragging on the ground, and the sound of ‘d’ in “day denies,”(6) with the feeling of denial and rejection.
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