"She Walks in Beauty" is an artistic appreciation of the
internal as well as the external beauty of a woman with an emphasis on how the duality
of loveliness "meets" in her person. The controlling metaphor for this duality is
in the comparison of the two facets of the feminine object of appreciation, expressed
with the employment of light and dark imagery.
In each
stanza, there is the comparison of physical characterization with the moral depiction.
For instance, the speaker says that the lady walks like the night of starry
skies
And all
that's best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her
eyes
The "eyes" are an apt
feature to illustrate both physical and inner beauty as they are the feature that best
reveals the heart of a person. Again, in the second stanza, the light/dark imagery
pervades as a descriptor of the dual characterization as a "nameless grace" is apparent
in her "raven tresses," her inner being. Or, they lighten her face where they are more
easily apparent.
Finally, in the final stanza Byron's
speaker expresses fully the idea that the purity and beauty of soul apparent on the
woman's features emanate from within, giving a glow of "a mind at peace" and a "heart
whose love is innocent." Indeed, throughout Byron's poem, the lady is the object of the
dual appreciation of physical and spiritual beauty, an inner beauty that even lends
beauty to the physical features of the woman.
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