2024年5月3日发(作者：)

She Walks in Beauty

Odes to the beauty seem to be a permanent topic. For instance, the well-known

poem, written by Su Shi, a famous poet in ancient China, compares the West Lake to

Xi Shi, a famous Chinese beauty in ancient China. Therefore, a famous verse comes

into every home, which shows us a beauty, never losing her charming whenever in

light makeup or heavy makeup. Likewise, in western country beauty is also a heat

topic. The poem she walks in beauty was written by George Gordon Byron, who is

one of the most eminent representatives of English Romanticism and one of the most

influential poets of the time. This poemis frequently considered one of his most

powerful works. It is an eighteen-line poem, much shorter than Byron’s famous

narrative poems, like Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage or Don Juan. But despite its brevity,

She Walks in Beauty has become one of the most well-known and easily recognized

poems of Byron’s. In this essay, we will discuss this poem from three aspects: sense,

sight, and sound.

It is a lyric poem focusing on the extraordinary beauty of a young lady. The

poem was written in an original wife of the author’s cousin. On the evening of June

11, 1814, Byron attended a party with his friend, James Wedderburn Webster, at the

London home of Lady Sarah Caroline Sitwell. Among the other guests was the wife

of Byron’s cousin, the beautiful Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, who was newly widowed

and wore a black mourning gown brighten with spangles. Her exquisite good looks

dazzled Byron and inspired him to write the poem.

The word “walk” embraces many meanings, out of which is the dynamic

beauty that constitutes the most important sense. Moreover, the author employs

various methods to form the sense of beauty throughout the poem.

She Walks in Beauty presents us a dynamic beauty. The word “walk” in the

title brings us into her beauty immediately. Usually, people always describe a lady

“beautiful”, but here Byron says that she walks in “beauty”. It seems that everything

is attracted by her beauty and it is her beauty that makes everything around shining.

It’s not she who dominates her own beauty, but in a natural way that the beauty

surrounds her so that her beauty diffuses around. Therefore, she walks in beauty, she

walks to everyone and she walks into reality. As readers, we can easily empathy on

the author that as if seeing her bathed in pure and bright. Therefore, we walk into a

splendid scene together with the author.

What leaves me deep impression is the sentence “One shade more , one ray

the less, had half impaired the nameless grace.” It reminds me of Tang Xiaofu in

Fortress Besieged, wriiten by Qian ZhongShu. She is so beautiful that any cosmetic is

redundant on her natural young face, in that makeup will impair her angelic beauty.

The two descriptions achieved the same sense by different methods. “Which waves in

every raven tress, or softly lighten o’er her face.” The author catches the details

properly. If asked what is the most lovely property of a woman, her wavey hair will

tell you everything. The nameless grace is not only in her aspect, but in her tress, like

other elegant women, what is different is that her elegance is exceptional sufficiently

adding to the distinction of her appearance, lightening her face. While The following

two lines focus on her inner beauty. A well-educated lady who grew up culturally

expresses her beauty of the mind from her inside, which is underlined by the word

“serenely” modifying the word “sweet”.

The last stanza mainly concentrates on her inner beauty. Softness, calmness

and eloquence melt into her cheek and eyebrows. Likewise, we can say that her cheek

and her eyebrows is the dwelling place of her softness, calmness and eloquence. As

the dwelling place, her cheek and eyebrows make the abstract things into the concrete

things. The double capital letters “A” emphasize her peaceful mind and innocent heart,

which highlights her holy pure and beauty. The affection of the poet directly outpours

in the last. Besides, the praise achieved the peak and the poem ends with it perfectly.

Her beauty is like a stream flowing slowly and gradually into our heart, and the verb

“walks” carries forward her beauty from the outside into her inside, carrying forward

the whole poem.

Let’s move into the “sight” in the following.

The sights “night”, “cloudless climes” and “starry skies” are impressive. Here

is simile. The beauty of Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot is compared to the cloudless and

starry sky. Why? The black mourning apparel on her is just like the pure dark sky,

peaceful and deep. The sequins glitter like the stars in the sky, intertwining with her

eyes. What is ingenious lies in the “dwelling place”, as if her body is so enchanting

that her thoughts became a butterfly lived in her body, further explaining how

charming she is. Such a beautiful woman possesses the beauty that is admired.

Besides, what should not be ignored in this poem is the ways of expressing

sound, which is also very ingenious.

In this poem, many soft consonants are employed, such as /w/, /i/, /m/ etc.

Additionally, many long vowels are also employed to make the pitch of voice sound

gentler and softer. And the peaceful quality of the lady is exposed to the slow rhythm

and the consonant lyrics, which reveals the highly praise of the poet.

This poem is a song of praise, in a unique perspective, the poet describes a

flowing beauty, vividly presenting her beauty to us, as if we see her in the reality. And

her beauty is not artificial but natural. Besides, she is the dwelling place of the truth,

kindness and beauty under the poet’s pen. Through her quiet face, we can see her pure

soul inside.

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