In Lord Byron’s “She walks in Beauty” many of the tenets of romanticism can be seen. In fact, this poem aligns so much with the tenets of romanticism that each characteristic can be ticked off. This poem is exemplary of the romantic era and all it held. Byron wrote with strong emotions and an awe of nature to celebrate an individual.
The characteristics of strong senses, emotions and feelings is one of the major ideas of romanticism. In “She Walks in Beauty” the subject is described with pure emotion as is shown in the speaker’s use of diction. The speaker uses words such as, “eloquent”, “gaudy” and “serenely” throughout the poem to describe the woman’s features and actions. These are words that describe emotion strongly. Even more so, the speaker is speaking as if he loves the woman to the point where he speaks so highly of her countenance. Except for the first line the speaker constantly refers to the woman by her features, “her eyes”, “her aspect”, and her raven tress. Not only is he in love with her looks but her innocence and mind as well as is shown in the third stanza. This indicates some sort of love which is one of the most powerful human emotions. This comes together with the precise use of diction to make poem full of strong emotions.
Clearly depicted in Byron’s work is an awe of nature, one of the tenets of the romantic era. The speaker compares this beautiful woman to nature, therefore he must think of nature in a way equivalent to her beauty. Describing her the way the speaker does, he thinks that nature alone is the only thing comparable to her beauty. The speaker does not compare the woman to anything other than the natural world. The first stanza is full of images of nature with phrases such as, “Starry skies”, “cloudless climes” and “beauty, like the night.” This exemplifies the poem of having one of romanticism’s major characteristics.
The woman in the poem is an individual being celebrated on account of her beauty, something seen as part of romanticism. In the whole poem there is neither line that does not talk about the woman nor one that even mentions the possibility of another person. The whole poem can be classified as an ode to this woman and all of her features. From the title, “She walks in Beauty”, to “a heart whose love is innocent” every line in between is a form of praise. This poem is at the zenith in terms of praising the individual.
“She Walks in Beauty” exemplifies the era in which it was written in its use of strong emotion, depiction of nature and celebration of the individual. This poem aligns with romanticism so cleanly that it may as well be the benchmark of romantic poetry.
