She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
Introduction to the Poet
-George Gordon Byron, was 6th Lord Byron. He was born in London on 22 January 1788 and died on 19 April 1824, Missolonghi, Greece.
Lord Byron was a British poet, politician, and leading figure in the Romantic Movement. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets. Among his best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Many of his shorter lyrics Hebrew Melodies also became popular.
He traveled extensively across Europe, especially in Italy, where he lived for seven years in the cities of Venice, Ravenna and Pisa. During his stay in Italy he frequently visited his friend and fellow poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Later in life Byron joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the age of 36 from a fever contracted in Missolonghi.
Explanation
"She Walks in Beauty" is a short lyrical poem in iambic tetrameter written in 1813 by Lord Byron, and is one of his most famous works. It is said to have been inspired by an event in Byron's life; while at a ball, Byron saw Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, the wife of his cousin, Robert Wilmot.
The poet goes to a party. There he sees a beautiful woman. He is charmed by her beauty. She is wearing a mourning dress which has shades of white colour. The woman walks beautifully. She, in fact, walks in beauty. Her walk in beauty is like cloudless and starry sky. Her beauty gives pleasure to anyone who sees her like the cloudless night gives us. Her face is bright and her eyes are dark. She has a perfect blend of black and white things. She is as beautiful as all the black things that appear pleasant to us.
Her beauty is different. It is different from other women. Her beauty is soft , calm, tender and sublime. Her beauty is not the beauty of dazzling and shiny day, but it is the beauty of
soft light. It is a gift given to the soft light by the heaven; the similar gift is given to the lady.
Her beauty is perfect, flawless, balanced and sublime. The lady is so perfect in her beauty that if you add one more shade or if you would remove a single ray of light, you would mess up everything. The balance in her beauty is so perfect. Fiddling with that balance would “half impair” or it would partly damage the woman‟s beauty.
Her black hairs wave in all the directions. Sometimes they come over her face. They lighten her face. The woman has calm and sweet thoughts. She is smiling. Her sweet reflection is a reflection of her mind. Her mind is the dwelling place of her thoughts. Her sweet expressions show her mind is pure and innocent.
