She Walks in Beauty Lyrics
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
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;
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,,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
About
Context: By one account, on the night of June 11, 1814, Byron attended a party and met the ravishing Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, who was married to Byron’s cousin Robert John Wilmot. She was wearing a dress of mourning with spangles. Lord Byron wrote She Walks in Beauty as an ode to her purity and grace. It was published in Hebrew Melodies in April 1815.
(Photogravure, based on a lithograph, of Anne Beatrix Wilmot-Horton, produced in the 1890s)
Form and Structure: A lyric poem consisting of three six-line stanzas, known as a sestet, of alternating rhyme — ABABAB — in iambic tetrameter.
Language and Imagery
The poem is unashamedly romantic. Byron uses imagery of the cosmos — sky and stars etc — in stanza one. Stanza two describes her grace and beauty in hyperbolic terms, and stanza three proclaims her goodness and innocence with equal exaggeration.
The most notable technique Byron uses is syntactic parallelism, whereby he balances ideas rhythmically; for example: “And on that cheek, and o'er that brow”.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- She Walks in Beauty