She Walks in Beauty

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1814

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Beauty and Its Multiple, Conflicting Layers

The central theme of the poem is the idea of beauty. Within that one abstract word, there are multiple ideas to unpack. The theme suggests a woman isn’t beautiful but aligns with beauty or “walks in beauty” (Line 1). Beauty and the woman in the poem are separate. The speaker doesn’t directly call the woman beautiful but says she moves within its sphere. The nameless woman and beauty aren’t the same. At this moment, the woman can keep up with beauty, but there may come a time when beauty and the woman don’t walk together any longer. The careful wording that distinguishes between beauty and the woman indicates that the theme of beauty is ephemeral—it’s not a permanent, everlasting trait.

In the lyric, beauty has its haunting qualities. The speaker compares it to a “night” (Line 1) of “starry skies” (Line 2) and suggests beauty brings together all that’s “dark and bright” (Line 3). Here, the theme of beauty is somewhat odious or, better put, not altogether positive. The poem subverts the notion that beauty is a bright, wholesome condition. There is something dark or shadowy about beauty. The woman’s “raven tress” (Line 9) or black hair confirms the link between beauty and mystery. Beauty has its unsettling qualities.

Conversely, Byron’s poem upholds conventional notions of beauty by linking it to vulnerability and a lack of force. The woman, whoever she is, doesn’t come across as strong or powerful. Her beauty manifests in the way that the light “softly lightens o’er her face” (Line 10) and how her cheek and forehead are “[s]o soft, so calm, yet eloquent” (Line 14). The repetition of soft ties beauty to gentleness and perpetuates the idea that, for a woman to be beautiful, she has to remain nonthreatening and passive.

The speaker talks about the woman like she’s a precious item. They may be saying she’s rare and valuable, but she’s still an object when, in reality, she’s a human. With the theme of beauty, the speaker arguably reduces her to an idol or a thing exclusively meant for people to admire. What matters isn't what she does or says. What’s most consequential are her looks.

The Essential Power of Nature

The Romantics’ interest in nature manifests in Byron’s poem. His speaker equates beauty with nature. The speaker declares, “[s]he walks in beauty, like the night / Of cloudless climes and starry skies” (Lines 1-2). In the first two lines, the speaker references nature—things that happen or exist without human intervention—four times: Night, clouds, stars, and the sky. By linking beauty to nature, the poem highlights the power of nature. Beauty doesn’t exist by itself—that is, beauty doesn’t run on beauty. Rather, based on the opening simile, beauty derives from nature or its association with natural things.

Throughout the poem, there are points when the beauty of the woman references, directly or indirectly, nature. The focus on light suggests the woman has something in common with the sun. Earth revolves around the sun, and the poem revolves around the woman who frequently emits some kind of light. There’s a “tender light” (Line 5), a light that “softly lightens o’er her face” (Line 10), and “smiles that win, the tints that glow” (Line 15). The woman is beautiful because she emits pleasant and soft colors. It’s as if she’s a sun that never shines too brightly or harshly but always radiates the perfect amount of light.

The woman also links to waves and a bird. The speaker says there’s a “nameless grace” (Line 8) that “waves in every raven tress” (Line 9). The image—the picture that the speaker creates with language—fastens the woman to waves of water or perhaps waves caused by wind. It also merges the color of her hair with a bird or a natural creature since a raven is a black-colored bird. In Byron’s poem, talking about beauty means discussing nature. A fair amount of beauty depends on its relationship with nature or symbols of nature, so nature is a dominant force.

The Link Between a Woman’s Appearance and Her Interiority

The idea of beauty doesn’t restrict the speaker to the woman’s external appearance. The speaker links the woman’s admirable looks to her estimable inside. The woman’s beautiful face is “[w]here thoughts serenely sweet express” (Line 10). Then, her attractive smiles “tell of days in goodness spent” (Line 16) and demonstrate a “mind at peace with all below” (Line 17). Byron’s poem is arguably claiming that a good, heavenly outside makes the inside of a person—their mind and heart—upstanding and unimpeachable. The notion of beauty isn’t entirely superficial, as a person’s interiority ties to how they look.

With the theme of interiority, it’s possible to argue that Byron’s poem doesn’t reduce the woman to an object since his speaker acknowledges that she has thoughts and feelings. She has a “dwelling-place” (Line 12) or a mind, and she possesses a “heart whose love is innocent!” (Line 18). The woman has depth because of her beauty, or, possibly, the woman has beauty because she has depth.

Conversely, there’s a way to argue that the presentation of the woman’s thoughts and feelings is sentimental and stereotypical. The dainty tone subverts the interiority the speaker tries to supply to the woman. In this interpretation, the woman’s interiority isn’t substantial since it reduces her to stultifying tropes about women—they’re innocent, sweet creatures but nothing more. The woman’s objectified appearance produces a fetishized interiority. Her inner character becomes an object, so it, too, conveys a one-dimensional portrait of a woman.