Notes on class discussion

1. She Walks in Beauty
Lord Byron
(George Gordon)

2. Lord Byron
• 1788 – 1824
• Born in London to a
noble family but had
little money – father
died when he was three
• At the age of ten he
inherited his great
uncle’s title, baron and
moved to the estate in
Nottingham

3. Lord Byron
• Studied at Trinity College at Cambridge
• Very popular, played sports and spent money
• After graduating traveled Europe and Middle
East
• Returned with poems – “Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage” – a young, moody, sensitive and
reckless hero – very much like him
• He became an overnight sensation

4. Lord Byron
• He was a celebrity and was as known as a “bad boy”
– numerous debts and love affairs
• Byron was very charming but also became associated
with the “Byronic Hero” – dark brooding hero,
impassioned by a cause – portrayed in his poems
• His marriage broke up and he fled the scandal - left
England for Italy – never to return
• In 1823 he joined a group of revolutionaries trying to
free Greece from Turkish rule, while there he
contracted rheumatic fever and died

5. She Walks in Beauty
• Byron uses a great deal of imagery to describe this
woman
• “She walks in beauty like the night” – simile – Byron
turns “night”, which is usually a symbol of darkness
and death, into something beautiful
• Uses alliteration to call attention to the light/dark
images – “cloudless climes”, “starry skies” , “day
denies”, “serenely sweet”- and her beauty

6. She Walks in Beauty
• “tender light” – is something you feel, light is
something you see – uses the 2 senses
• “Which heaven to gaudy day denies” –
personification is used twice – heaven can’t
deny anything and the day can’t be gaudy
• It is a poem of polarities – light and dark
• “cloudless climes and starry skies”
• “dark and bright”

7. She Walks in Beauty
• “One shade the more, one ray the less” –
these cancel each other out and really suggest
that there is a balance to the dark and light
and this is really what beauty is all about
• “raven tress” – is a metaphor – this is unusual
because at the time pale blonds were the
standard of beauty – Byron states that the
dark hair makes her face lighter – more
beautiful

8. She Walks in Beauty
• This outside beauty is a reflection of her inside
beauty – “Where thoughts serenely sweet
express/How pure, how dear their dwelling
place[metaphor]” – personifies thoughts –
they don’t speak – uses a metaphor for her
mind
• “smiles” and “tints” “tell of days in goodness
spent” – personification

9. She Walks in Beauty
• “A heart whose love is innocent” – personification – love or
the heart can’t be innocent
• The main theme is beauty or the woman’s appearance
• By focusing solely on her beauty Byron creates an image of
perfect balance dark/light and also of inner beauty
• Byron objectifies the woman – he judges her on her
appearance and leads the reader to believe that the balance
of light/dark makes her perfect with out providing any details
about who she really is and what she is really like

10. She Walks in Beauty
• “A heart whose love is innocent” – personification – love or
the heart can’t be innocent
• The main theme is beauty or the woman’s appearance
• By focusing solely on her beauty Byron creates an image of
perfect balance dark/light and also of inner beauty
• Byron objectifies the woman – he judges her on her
appearance and leads the reader to believe that the balance
of light/dark makes her perfect with out providing any details
about who she really is and what she is really like