In "She Walks in Beauty", Byron expresses his thoughts of internal and external beauty. It may be a little unusual that the woman he is admiring is related to him; his cousin. Never the less, he finds her extremely beautiful.
"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" (Line 1 - 4)
Gordon seems to be contrasting light and dark. Her beauty illuminates like a well lit sky of stars at night, it shows even in darkness there still is light. I think its admirable that he compares her beauty to nature as well (stars, skies, etc.)
"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." (Lines 13 - 18)
He continues to talk about her physical beauty, but also talks about the smiles that win and a peace of mind. This suggests that her beauty is also internal, that she wins smiles through her personal interactions and relationships. A heart being innocent may symbolize her kindness and unselfish spririt.
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I enjoy Lord Byron's writing and how eccentric he can be. This poem is so beautiful though and from this blog one thing I didn't get on my read is the purity or extremity he may be eluding to of her kindness and unselfish spirit. I'm glad to be able to read others feed back on the poem it furthers my understand of what I have read.
ReplyDeleteReally weird how he's admiring his cousin. That's all I'll say about that. But I like how you showed his comparison of light and dark. That seemed to be significant. So true about how he compared her beauty to natural beauty-- for some reason this always comes out as the most powerful. I agree with you: he is presenting her as beautiful inside and out.
ReplyDeleteAngela,
ReplyDeleteYou do a good job in this post of explicating Byron's poem, and present well-chosen passages to support and illustrate your observations.
Even though this was about a cousin, I enjoyed the sincerity of the poem. The man, however ridiculous his life was, wrote beautiful works and this one stuck out to me. I agree that his comparisons to nature helped to illuminate the girls beauty and make the poem more genuine and wholesome. If you ignore the initial shock of it being about a cousin, it is a very humble and innocent way of talking about one's love for another.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you compared the symbolism between light and dark to inner and outer beauty. I can see the comparison between the two as well as how someone's personality and spirit can be light on the inside, which makes them more appealing and inviting to others. A lot of people say that in order to read someone you have to take a look into their soul through their eyes and Gordon speaks of this. You can tell that she has lived and experienced life but yet there is still a tender and kind person besides the outside shell.Even the wording that Gordon used was also soft, and pleasant.
ReplyDeleteLord Byron seems to concentrate mostly on women, like how he describes the mother in Don Juan, he talks for several passages about the mother and only one on the father. This might actually be a personal touch by Lord Byron but it is weird that he talks about his cousin in that way
ReplyDelete