Analysis of She Walks in Beauty Poem

She Walks in Beauty

By George Gordon, Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night                                                                             1

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;             

And all that’s best of dark and bright                       

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:                    

Thus mellow’d to that tender light                                                                             5

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.              

One shade the more, one ray the less,            

Had half impair’d the nameless grace            

Which waves in every raven tress,                 

Or softly lightens o’er her face;                                                                                  10

Where thoughts serenely sweet express         

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.     

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,         

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,                       

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,                                                                     15

But tell of days in goodness spent,                

A mind at peace with all below,                    

A heart whose love is innocent!                     

The poem “She Walks in Beauty” by George Gordon, Lord Byron uses several figurative language. The first is simile. Simile is a direct comparison between items that are unlike in most ways, but similar in one respect. The comparison in a simile is usually made through the use of words like and as. Thus, in the first line which is “She walk in beauty, like the night”. The second is metaphor. Metaphor states that A is B. it equates the two items. For instance in the last line which is “A heart whose love is innocent”. Besides that, in the first line, it’s also the example of personification because it’s impossible to walk in beauty. The fourth is alliteration, which is in the 2^nd and 11^th line. They are “cloudiness and climes starry skies” and “serenely sweet”.

The speaker of this poet is the writer itself. The writer admires of a woman’s beauty. Then, he compares about his feeling (which is admiring the woman’s beauty) with the nature’s beauty. It is shown by the first and the second line in the poem. It means that, the writer suggests a comparison between the beauty of a woman and the beauty of the nature. He admires of woman’s beauty, it’s looked by 13^th line up to 15^th line. Then, he compares about admiring the woman’s beauty with the nature’s beauty, it’s looked by 2^nd, 3^rd, 7^th, and 8^th line. Then, the tone of the poem is romantic, soft, and calm because he compares the nature’s beauty and the woman’s beauty, like in the 1^st and the 2^nd line.

"She Walks in Beauty" has such a regular meter and rhyme scheme that you almost find yourself swaying along with the rhythm as you read it. The sound of the poem is mesmerizing and melodic. Take the first two lines, “She walks in beauty, like the night/Of cloudless climes and starry skies”.

Lastly in my opinion, the poem “She Walks in Beauty” is good for several reasons. The first is, the poem not only has a beautiful rhyme, but also it has a beautiful content. It has A-B-A-B rhyme, and then the content has high meaningful. The second is, every line in the poem contains 8 syllables, except for 6^th line. Then, the poem has a beautiful diction, for example in the 15^th line, which is “Smiles that win, the tints that glow”.

The part of the poem that makes dramatized is the content (story/meaning) of the poem. Actually, the speaker of the poem is the writer itself. It is looked by the content of the poem. The content of the poem is telling directly what does the author feel. The author shows directly what does he feel. It is looked by the 1^st line “She walks in beauty, like the night”, and then it is looked clearly in the 17^th and 18^th line, which are “A mind at peace with all below” and “A heart whose love is innocent!”. Those lines inadvertently explain that ‘a mind’ and ‘a heart’ here, it is the author’s mind and the author’s heart. Then, for the audience is ‘She’. ‘She’ here, it is the woman who walks in beauty, like the night. ‘She’ is the woman who is admired by him (the speaker itself). Once again, the speaker here is the author itself. Thus, the characters in the poem are both of them. The speaker itself and ‘She’, the woman who is admired by the speaker.

The conflict in the poem is the speaker with himself, with his feeling, with his admiring the woman. The conflict is about the speaker’s fear which is to tell the woman about his feeling. The speaker just can admire the woman. Actually, the speaker wants to tell her about his feeling. But, it is so hard for the speaker itself. It is looked from the 15^th line “The smiles that win”. That line explains that the speaker is lose, he is lose to tell his feeling to the woman. It also supported by the 7^th line “One shade the more, one ray the less”. It explains that the speaker is waiting the woman to meet him. It is like the speaker is waiting under the three, and then the woman walks to him. Thus, the speaker has not told to the woman about his feeling because he is lost by the woman’s smile. He just can admire the woman.

I’m sure that to tell about love feeling to someone special is very hard and difficult. Although, he/she is in front of us, our mouth just can stop and it cannot say anything, moreover he/she smiles. It is same like the contents of the poem. When, the speaker is waiting just for telling what he feels to the woman. It is lost and fly when the girl smiles.