She Walks In Beauty- Lord Byron

She Walks In Beauty- Lord Byron

1. CONTEXT

   • Written in 1814
     • After he laid eyes on his cousins wife in a black sequin dress, explaining the first lines
   • Transgressing the conventional moral codes of his day. Divorced and left LDN for Europe, has affairs (men+women), his sister- incest?
   • Concious of his club foot

2. THE BEAUTY

   • Lies within the lyrical description of not only her physical aspects but her inner glow
   • No direct mention of the dress but the simile 'she walks in beauty like the night' beyonce physcial description
   • Images linked to her beauty are: Innocence, Purity, Nature
     • Compares her to natural phenomena
       • 'night' 'climes' 'skies' 'night' 'heaven'

3. METRE/RHYTHM

   • Four feet per line, Iambic tetrametre
     • Some inversion of stress to add emphasis
   • Anaphors and alliteration enhance the regular metrical rhythm
   • The rhyme scheme is regular with some imperfect rhymes which make you realise her flawlessnes

4. Use of light and dark

   • Light/dark= she's perfectly balanced
     • 'gaudy' day= personified
   • 'One shade more one ray less'
     • Equilbrium, perfect, balanced