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She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night   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.   © Teachable and Rachel McKenna. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2711

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. © Teachable and Rachel McKenna. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2711

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. © Teachable and Rachel McKenna. Some rights reserved. http://teachable.net/res.asp?r=2711

AO3 – Contextual Introduction. Byron was one of the leading poets of a group known as the Romantics. Romanticism was a general artistic movement (literature, music, the visual arts, etc.) which dominated European culture from the late-18th century until the mid-19th century. Romanticism had many key features among which were: a recognition of the influence of the senses and of personal emotion that the heart (emotion) is considered more powerful than the head (logic/reason) an understanding of the deep power of the natural world All of these are features of Byron’s poem.

Lord Byron ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’

Byron is believed to have been inspired to write the poem after seeing a woman with very good looks at a fashionable London party. His poem is, therefore, a very personal one which responded to a personal situation. It has been claimed that the lady in question was in mourning and dressed in a black spangled gown; the first two lines shows how this interpretation would seem to mirror the image that Byron creates. Byron himself had many stormy personal relationships. He was famously described as 'mad, bad and dangerous to know'.

She walks in beauty, like the night AO1 -What do the first two lines tell us about the mystery woman? 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.   AO2 – Why does Byron use the simile in Line 1 and what are the effects of using light and dark imagery in this opening stanza? AO1 -What does the last line mean?

She walks in beauty, like the night Simile to compare the subject’s beauty to something vast, uncontained and almost unimaginable.- 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.   Enjambment links the end of line 1 with line Enjambment means carrying the sense of one line of verse over to the next line without a pause. Alliteration in lines 2 and 6 Antithesis: Lord Byron describes a night (associated with darkness) with bright stars (light) and compares this woman to that night. She brings together these opposites in her beauty and creates a "tender light." Not a light like the daytime, since he describes that as gaudy (showy in a vulgar way), but a light that "heaven" doesn't even honour the daytime with.

Form and structure Rhyme and meter The rhyme scheme of the first stanza is ababab; the second stanza, cdcdcd; and the third stanza, efefef. The meter is predominantly iambic tetrameter, a pattern in which a line has four pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables—eight syllables in all. The first two lines demonstrate the pattern followed throughout the poem except for line 6, which has nine syllables:  1................2........... 3...............4 She WALKS | in BEAU | ty, LIKE | the NIGHT         1.................2................. 3...............4 Of CLOUD | less CLIMES | and STAR | ry SKIES

One shade the more, one ray the less, AO1 – What does Byron want us to think about the woman? AO2 - What is unusual about the woman being described as a raven-haired 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; Where thoughts serenely sweet express    How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. AO3 – How does Byron illustrate his Romantic characteristics here?

One shade the more, one ray the less, Alliteration in lines 8, 9 and 11 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. Metaphor in line 8 comparing ‘grace’, a quality, to a perceivable phenomenon Metaphor and personification in lines 11-12 comparing thoughts to people; metaphor and personification comparing the mind to a home (dwelling-place) Note that Byron says that if this darkness and lightness wouldn't be in the right proportions ("One shade the more, one ray the less"), her beauty wouldn't be completely ruined as you might expect. He says that she would only be "half impaired," and thus still half magnificent.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, AO1 - What do the woman’s smiles and blushes represent? 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. What attitudes to women are expressed in this poem?

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, Metaphor in lines 13-16 comparing the woman's cheek and brow to people who tell of days in goodness spent 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. Alliteration in lines 14 and 18