“She Walks in Beauty” Summary

“She Walks in Beauty” Themes

• 

  Beauty and Harmony

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• 

  Inner Beauty vs. Outer Beauty

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “She Walks in Beauty”

• Lines 1-2

  She walks in beauty, like the night 
  Of cloudless climes and starry skies; 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 3-6

  And all that’s best of dark and bright 
  Meet in her aspect and her eyes; 
  Thus mellowed to that tender light 
  Which heaven to gaudy day denies. 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-10

  One shade the more, one ray the less, 
  Had half impaired the nameless grace 
  Which waves in every raven tress, 
  Or softly lightens o’er her face; 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 11-12

  Where thoughts serenely sweet express, 
  How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

  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!

  

  

  

  

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“She Walks in Beauty” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Antithesis

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Diacope

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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“She Walks in Beauty” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Climes
• Aspect
• Thus
• Mellowed
• Gaudy
• Had
• Impaired
• Raven Tress
• O'er
• Serenely
• Dwelling-Place
• Eloquent
• Tints
• But

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “She Walks in Beauty”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“She Walks in Beauty” Speaker

“She Walks in Beauty” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “She Walks in Beauty”

More “She Walks in Beauty” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Reading of the Poem — The poem read by Tom O'Bedlam.

  • Byron's Scandals — A documentary about Lord Byron's more salacious side.

  • Lord Byron's Revenge — Byron launches an attack on the literary establishment—one which helped him make his name.

  • Byron's Life and More Poems — A good resource from the Poetry Foundation with biographical details on Byron, plus more of his poems.

  • A Scathing Review — A review of Byron's first collection of poems, which isn't exactly full of praise!

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Lord Byron

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  • On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year

  • Prometheus

  • So We'll Go No More a Roving

  • The Destruction of Sennacherib

  • When We Two Parted