She Walks With Beauty
She Walks With BeautyExplication of Lord Byron�s "She Walks In Beauty"
Lord George Gordon Noel Byron, or Lord Byron as he preferred to be called, was a known philanderer with an insatiable appetite. In letters to Percy Shelley, he told of short-lived romances with women he claimed did not understand the wants and needs of men. One of these women was Lady Caroline Lamb, who he found only physically attractive, and soon grew tired of her because she was "ridiculously overpassionate". Later in his life, he took to referring to such women as "Carolinish." In his twenties, there were rumors that Lord Byron went as far as courting his sister over a period of several years because she seemed to truly understand him, but the affair ended as those rumors continued to spread. In his poem "She Walks In Beauty", Lord Byron describes what he thinks to be the perfect woman.
The rhyming, meter, and sound devices give the poem a melodious and gentle tone. This tone suggests the tender nature of this enchanting woman and gives the reader a sense of consistency that allows them to focus more on the woman than the wording of the poem. The alternating rhyme scheme in all three sestets gives the poem its consistent tone. "She walks in beauty, like the night," (1) rhyming with "And all that�s best of dark and bright," (3) makes the poem easier to remember and pleasing to the reader�s eyes and ears. The iambic tetrameter, when read aloud, guides the reader along in such a way that the poem maintains a smooth and graceful sound. "Of cloudless climes and starry skies," (2) is more pleasant when read with the proper accents than if it were read without its proper meter. The alliteration also contributes to the smooth and melodious sound in the poem. "Serenely sweet," (11), "Cloudless climes" (2), and "Day denies," (6) contribute to the gentle and consistent tone, thus allowing the reader to focus more on the woman rather than on the sharpness of the wording. Likewise, the sibilance adds to the soft tone by its water-like sounds. "So soft, so calm," (14) does not disrupt the tone or take the focus off the woman but adds to the euphonic sound, thus maintaining the poems melodious and consistent tone.
The imagery and word choice in the poem adds to its pleasing tone, as well as showing us the narrator�s reverence for this woman he has yet to see. "She walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies," (1 and 2), shows us that the narrator is, at first, fascinated by this woman�s appearance. She is compared to the night, which is a time commonly associated with all things mysterious. Thus telling us that he is enchanted by her mysterious qualities....
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