The poem "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron describes a beautiful woman. Byron was inspired to write it after seeing his cousin at a party, struck by her dark hair and fair skin. The poem uses nature imagery and contrasts of light and dark to portray her physical beauty. It also suggests she has inner beauty, with references to her sweet and innocent thoughts and pure heart. Byron employs literary devices like similes, metaphors, personification and alliteration to vividly portray the woman's beauty and convey the theme that her external and internal qualities are in perfect balance and harmony.

1. By Lord Byron

2. * Lord Byron was an English poet and a
leading figure in the Romantic movement .
* He wrote during the early nineteenth century.
* Among Byron's best-known works are the
lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage and the short lyric "She
Walks in Beauty."
* He is regarded as one of the greatest British
poets and remains widely read and influential.
* Byron continued to produce poetry until the
end of his life in 1824. He was only 36 when he
died .

3. 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.
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.
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!

4. “She Walks in Beauty” is a lyric poem
centering on the extraordinary beauty of a
young lady. George Gordon Byron
(commonly known as Lord Byron) wrote the
poem in 1814 and published it in a collection
The poem was inspired by actual events in
, Hebrew Melodies , in 1815.
Byron’s life. Lord Byron attended a party at
Lady Sitwell’s. While at the party, Byron was
inspired by the sight of his cousin, the
beautiful Mrs. Wilmot, who was wearing a
black spangled mourning dress. Byron was
struck by his cousin’s dark hair and fair face,

5. The first stanza of the poem describes
the physical appearance of the woman
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
Lord Byron describes a night (associated with darkness) with bright
stars (light) and compares this woman to that night.
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Byron describes light and dark coming together in her appearance (or
"aspect"), as in her dark hair ("tress") and the light complexion of her
face. But her also says they meet in her eyes. The eyes are often
associated with a person's soul, and reveal the heart. So he is suggesting
that opposites meet in her soul as well.

6. Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies
Everything that's great about both "dark and
bright" is "mellowed," or toned down to
something that's more "tender" and less
intense than the light you get during the day.

7. The second stanza of the poem describes both her
physical and intellectual beauty.
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;
the combination of opposite forces, "shade" and "ray", used to create balance in this
woman. This balance between "shade" and light in the lady's beauty is so perfect that
if you added one more "shade," or took away a single "ray" of light, you'd mess
everything up.
* Fiddling with that balance at all would "half impair," or partially damage the
woman's beauty
* Her beauty and "grace" are so hard to define that they're "nameless." .
By using the word “nameless” , 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.
This "nameless grace" is visible in every look of her black hair ("every raven tress")
and it "lightens" her face.

8. Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
_The expression on the woman's face shows how
"serenely sweet" her "thoughts" are.
_Her "sweet" expression is an accurate reflection of
what's going on inside her mind, which is the
"dwelling place" of her thoughts.
_ The sweetness of this lady's expression
suggests that her mind is "pure" and innocent.

9. In the last stanza , the poet also talks about both
her physical and intellectual, beauty.
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!
Her cheek and her smiles are beautiful.
In the phrases “days in goodness spent,”(16) “mind at peace,”(17)
and “heart 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.

10. 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;
to give the poem a smooth
Thus mellowed to that tender light flow, the poet uses
Which heaven to gaudy day denies. alliteration
in parts such as “cloudless
One shade the more, one ray the less, climes,”(2) “starry skies,”(2)
Had half impaired the nameless grace “day denies,”(6) and
Which waves in every raven tress, “serenely sweet.”(11)
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
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!

11. the poet uses personification such as “smiles that win” and
“heart whose love is innocent,”
to vividly describe the woman’s soft smiles and pure heart.
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.
Byron also uses metonymies like
“smiles”(15) to represent “the woman,”
and “heaven”(6) to represent “god.”

12. www.123helpme.com
http://poetrypages.lemon8
wikipedia.org
www.shmoop.com