analysis of "She Walks in Beauty"

Analysis of Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”

Lord George Gordon Byron was most notorious for his love affairs within his family and with Mediterranean boys. Since he had problems such as incest and homosexuality, he did not mind writing about his love for his cousin in “She Walks in Beauty”. Byron wrote the poem after he left his wife and England forever. Byron made his own trend of personality, the idea of the ‘Byronic Hero’. “Byron’s influence on European poetry, music, novels, operas, and paintings have been immense, although the poet was widely condemned on moral grounds by his contemporaries” (Dick, 54). Overall, the study focuses on the life of Lord George Gordon Byron, imagery, and about the lyrics of “She Walks in Beauty”.

Lord Byron was an English Romantic poet and satirist whose poetry and personality captured the imagination of Europe. As his name would show, Byron was born into a noble English family. He lived the life as a beggar, and a proud and snobbish genius focused only to his own passions. He was born with a deformity of one foot, which left him with a life long limp. However, he grew up to be a dark, handsome man, and women loved him, and he loved women. “His sexual exploits are legend” (Blair, 2). Byron spent most of his adult life in England, making his first trip in 1809 with his school friend, John Hobhouse. Hobhouse returned to England leaving Byron to go on to Greece

Bhakta 2 by himself. Byron tried to settle down into a regular life. He even went to the point of getting married, but it did not work out very well. By 1821, Byron was living in Italy where he was a part of a romantic literary circle. Byron was to get himself caught up with the war between the Greeks and the Turks. In 1824, Byron left to go to Greece. Shortly, at the age of thirty-six Byron died of fever in Missolonghi, Greece.

Lord Byron was a man whose passion for life seem incomparable to any of the other Romantic poets. Byron’s personal character could be seen in his literature just as in his life. Lord Byron’s most notable contribution to literature was Byronic Hero. “It possessed many qualities which Lord Byron himself displayed in day to day life” (Doherty 86). Whether in search of women or adventure, the life of Lord Byron and his Byronic Hero have many similarities. The w...

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... the most beautiful in the English language. It was written in aba bab form. The poem was

Bhakta 4 inspired by the sight of Byron’s cousin Mrs. Wilmot in a black dress one evening in

1814. The young woman is a very innocent person, she has black hair and a graceful way of speech. The greatest feature is her eyes. The poem describes her graceful actions and movements. “Byron uses darkness to describe his love for the young woman, it is vague but it works” (Beasley, 1). Romantic writers do not want to connect their brains or their feelings. “As he wrote it we cannot say but the same thought that was in his mind as other poets -that the beautiful sights and sounds of nature as well as the beauty of goodness pass into and inform the features of all those who give themselves up to these soothing and beneficent agencies (Dick, 81).

In conclusion, “She Walks in Beauty” is one of the most beautiful poems written in English literature. Inspired by his beautiful cousins glamour, Byron wrote down how he felt about her. Later it became one of his first Hebrew Tunes. His poetry and personality captured much attention of Europe. Sadly, Byron died of fever in 1824.