"She walks in Beauty" - Lord Byron

She walks in Beauty

-          Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron)

        Lord Byron was Anglo- Scottish poet and important figure in Romanticism; he was a scholar and widely read, because of his abilities he was mostly known as “Lord Byron”. Famous works of Lord Byron is “Don Juan”, “Child Harold’s Pilgrimage” and a short lyric “She walks in beauty”.

      

        Here I am sharing my favourite poem “She walks in Beauty” which I have also studied in my Bachelors. Lord Byron has written this poem for his cousin sister, who was widow and wearing a black dress. This concept of admiring the beauty of widow reminds me the poem I have studied in my Masters, “The Fakeer of Jungheera” by Henry Derozio, who described the beauty of Nuleeni – a Sati. The poem includes pain, darkness with the brighter elements of a girl, her eyes, her beauty and her innocence is more powerful than her black dress and mourning for her husband.

She Walks in Beauty

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!

    

       From the very first stanza there is a contradiction, “like the night”.  It suggests that night is beautiful with the stars and moon but night has a darkness which suggests the mourning of a girl and her dress. The best elements of dark and night meet in her eyes, like she has the best things from darkness and brightness. The light of a lady is tender and not gaudy, which suggests that it gives pleasure to eyes rather than making the viewer blind with shining, the comparison could be with day/sun light which is more powerful and night/moon light which gives us peace.

    

      “One shade the more, one ray the less” clearly suggests that her beauty is very perfectly beautiful. Poet is not able to give a name to her grace, he addresses her grace as a “nameless grace”. If we find the meaning of “raven trees” in google images, it shows a black tree with almost no leafs, the hair of lady is very similar like branches of tree, it gently placed over her face.

     In the third stanza poet describes her soft smile, with the help of her cheek and brow, and when she smiles the blush on her face makes her more beautiful. Her smile is all because of her days which she has spent in goodness, and this is the reason that she could smile innocently. The lady’s heart is innocent and her mind is pure, without any bad thought for anyone.

     In this poem Lord Byron has very beautifully presented the connection between inner beauty and external beauty. The lady has fair skin and big eyes but she also has innocence in her eyes and purity in her mind. Without purity and innocence the beauty is just physical, but this lady walks in beauty, and the word ‘beauty’ is used for pure love, innocence, gentleness, calmness, and peace, and all these elements are necessary for life.