She Walks in Beauty (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Idealised love  

The poem is a three stanza tribute to a woman:

• Each stanza describes different aspects of the woman from her beauty to her thoughts and behaviour 

Byron’s poem centres around an unidentified woman:

• The close focus is suggestive of obsession, especially as the speaker does not refer to themselves or hint at the nature of their relationship 

The poem is told in third-person: “She walks” and “her face” 

This implies a distanced relationship, perhaps alluding to unrequited love or desire

The romantic poem praises a woman who is not addressed or named, contributing to the idea of a speaker fantasising about love 

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Romantic love

The poem’s regular rhythm is created with iambic tetrameter:

• This contributes to a sense of order and harmony

Byron’s poem pays tribute to the woman’s peaceful and calm nature with its soothing, predictable rhythm 

The rhyme scheme is a regular ababab throughout

The perfection and constancy of the rhyming structure reflects the poem’s themes about a perfect woman who is peaceful and serene

The poem ends with an exclamation mark: “A heart whose love is innocent!”

Byron’s sudden exclamation to end the poem elevates the idea of love with a fervent expression of admiration 

Byron’s poem is a sophisticated and traditional poem that presents a speaker’s love and the idea of romance as joyful and soothing

Theme

Evidence

Poet’s intention

Harmony and beauty

Byron’s natural imagery is highlighted with alliteration and sibilance such as in “cloudless climes” and “starry skies”

Typical of Romantic poetry, Byron relates love to the beauty of nature:

• His image of a perfect sky alludes to the woman’s perfect beauty

Moreover, the images of dark and light are repeated through the poem:

• The woman is the “best” of “dark” and “bright”

• He describes a “shade” and a “ray”, and the “glow” of her smile against her “raven tress”

Byron may be alluding to the woman’s mysterious nature as he describes her in relation to night:

• However, the contrasts can suggest a sense of harmony and symmetry 

Byron’s universal expression of a woman’s beauty relates her to celestial imagery: 

• Her “tender light” seems to soften the “gaudy day”

• He refers to “heaven”

Byron’s poem praises the woman as if she is connected to the universe:

• As the first line says, she is “like the night” 

Byron’s poem uses romantic imagery that compares the woman’s beauty to nature and suggests she represents harmony and perfection

Topic sentence

Both speakers describe idealised romantic relationships

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)'

Byron’s poem focuses solely on describing a woman, suggestive of fascination or intense attraction

Barrett Browning’s poem centres around a first-person speaker’s expressions of intense love: 

• As the speaker describes their love the repetition of “I love thee” hints at obsessive love

Byron elevates the idea of romance:

• The woman is described with hyperbolic language:  “So soft, so calm” and “How pure, how dear” 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem similarly elevates the idea of love:

• The speaker says: “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach”

• They add: “I love thee with the breath,/Smiles, tears, of all my life”

The poem uses celestial imagery to compare the woman to “heaven” and “starry skies”:

• The woman’s purity is emphasised at the end of the poem: 

• She has “A heart whose love is innocent!”

In Sonnet 43, too, religious references imply the speaker’s love is pure:

• The speaker loves with “childhood’s faith” that seems to be stronger than the love for “lost saints”

The poets elevate the idea of romance to present intense feelings of love and desire 

Topic sentence

Both poems describe love with reference to constancy and enlightenment

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)'

Byron’s poem employs sophisticated alternating rhyme in regular stanzas to present a constant rhythm and a controlled speaker

Barrett Browning uses a sonnet to allude to romantic traditions:

• The sonnet follows a traditional and sustained abba cdcdcd rhyme scheme

Byron’s natural imagery describes both dark and light:

• The woman has the “best of dark and bright”

• He shows this in oxymoronic lines: “every raven tress” that “softly lightens o’er her face”

• Byron alludes to the woman’s “tender light” in contrast to the “gaudy day”

Barrett Browning, too, uses natural imagery related to the light: 

• The speaker loves the listener in “every day’s/Most quiet need”

• The speaker refers to contrasting ideas of light to highlight the constancy of their love: “by sun and candle-light”

The woman is described as serene and calm, and Byron implies the speaker’s admiration of her purity:

• She spends her “days in goodness” and she is “at peace with all below”

Barrett Browning, too, hints at the way love is connected with virtue:

• The speaker refers to the levels their “soul can reach” and they love “purely”

• They refer to “ideal grace”

Both poems explore ideas about the connection between goodness and true love

Topic sentence

While Byron’s poem hints at silent or unrequited love, Barrett Browning’s poem is an expressive direct address to a lover

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)'

Byron’s third-person description of an unnamed woman, “she”, suggests the love is not realised

Sonnet 43, however, repeats a first-person speaker’s account of their love throughout the poem addressing “thee” (you)

The speaker does not refer to themselves or their emotions, conveying a sense of detachment: 

• Instead, the poem describes a woman as if someone is watching her, “And on that cheek, and o’er that brow”

The speaker, here, implies a listener with whom they are intimate: 

• The rhetorical question to start the poem implies this is a reply: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

Byron depicts a silent, distant admiration for a woman while Barrett Browning offers a lover an account of how much they value their relationship 

Topic sentence

Both poems portray love as romantic and ethereal

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'La Belle Dame sans Merci'

Byron uses natural imagery to describe the perfection of the woman in his poem:

• She is “like the night/Of cloudless climes and starry skies” and “dark and bright”

• He contrasts images to conveys complexities in her beauty: “One shade the more, one ray the less”

Keats uses contrasting natural imagery to describe the romantic relationship:

• The knight is on a “cold hill” when the “harvest” is done

• They meet in the “meads” and make flower garlands in a “fragrant zone”

Byron uses celestial imagery: 

• The speaker is “mellowed” by the woman’s “tender light” like “heaven to gaudy day”

Keats similarly makes religious references to elevate romantic love:

• The lady feeds the knight “manna-dew”

In 'She Walks in Beauty' and 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' the speakers both explore the spiritual and sensual nature of the women they desire

Topic sentence

Both poems can be considered classical and traditional in their presentation of romance 

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'La Belle Dame sans Merci'

Byron’s speaker idealises the lady’s beauty and purity: 

• She is “So soft, so calm, yet eloquent”

• She has “smiles that win” and speak of “goodness” and “serenely sweet” thoughts

The lady in the poem is a typical female character in medieval romantic poetry:

• The speaker idealises the lady’s appearance:

  • She is described as “Full beautiful” and her “hair was long”

• She “made sweet moan”

• She expresses her feelings for the knight: “‘I love thee true’”

Byron’s speaker alludes to the darker side of the woman he describes: 

• He shows her contrasting nature: “And all that’s best of dark and bright”

• He describes her hair as black with animal imagery: “raven tress”

Keats describes her as a typical damsel in distress at times, such as in the line “she wept and sighed full sore”:

• However, she is also shown as a femme fatale

• She seduces and lures the knight (and other men) to their death 

Both poets explore the strong attraction the speakers feel for a beautiful and mysterious lady in their Romantic poems

Topic sentence

'She Walks in Beauty' ends with a peaceful resolution, while "La Belle Dame sans Merci" has a tragic conclusion that presents desire as dangerous

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'La Belle Dame sans Merci'

Byron’s poem has a regular structure with ababab rhyme scheme across stanzas to show a calm, reflective speaker

Keats’s poem raises darker themes in the disrupted rhythm of the lyrical ballad:

• Alternating rhyme creates a flowing narrative at times

• Other lines, such as with “brow” and “rose”, create an ominous tone

Byron uses iambic tetrameter to create a regular and controlled rhythm: 

• This conveys a positive tone

• The poem ends with an exclamation of joy: “A heart whose love is innocent!”

In Keats’s poem, the regular rhythm is disturbed with short lines like “And no birds sing”:

• This line ends the poem with a dark conclusion, the knight is alone and dead

• Keats uses caesura and exclamations to present warnings, such as in “—Ah! woe betide!—”

While Keats’s romantic poem dwells on the brief love of a dying knight, Byron’s poem is a universal expression of admiration and joy

Topic sentence

Both poems present romantic relationships as mysterious   

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty'

'Valentine'

Byron’s description of a mysterious woman who is “like the night” presents, perhaps, the confusing or hidden aspects of romance

Duffy’s poem, too, suggests romantic relationships can be complex, with mystery: 

• She uses the metaphor of an onion to present love as layered

Byron uses contrasting imagery to present hidden elements to the woman: 

• She is both “dark and bright”

• She has dark hair (“raven tress”) that “softly lightens o’er her face”

Duffy’s imagery offers contradictory,  oxymoronic descriptions of love: 

• Instead of a “red rose or a satin heart” she offers her lover an onion

• The gift is a “moon wrapped in brown paper” that “promises light”

• The speaker says the onion brings “tears” like a “lover”

The speaker observes the woman closely and implies desire:

• He comments on “that cheek, and o’er that brow”

Duffy’s poem uses a semantic field that connotes to physical love and lust: “Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips”

The poems both comment on the powerful complexities of romance and desire  

Topic sentence

While Byron’s poem presents a silent speaker’s obsessive observation of a woman, Duffy’s speaker offers a lover their thoughts on romantic love

Evidence and analysis

'She Walks in Beauty' 

'Valentine'

Byron’s poem romanticises the lady as a serene, quiet and beautiful woman:

• Her tenderness is stressed: “So soft, so calm, yet eloquent”

Duffy’s speaker is “trying to be truthful” about love: 

• The speaker refers to the disruption it can cause: “It will make your reflection/a wobbling photo of grief”

Hyperbolic language shows romantic love as idealised, particularly as the poem ends: 

• She is at peace with “all below”

• She has a “heart whose love is innocent!”

Duffy, on the other hand, ends the poem with sensory language that implies a sinister warning: “Its scent will cling to your fingers,/cling to your knife.”

Byron’s poem uses a traditional rhyme scheme and structure to present a controlled, sophisticated presentation of romance

Duffy’s poem is unconventional, with irregular stanzas and line lengths, offering a disruptive, unstable monologue 

Byron’s poem offers an examination of idealised desire, while Duffy’s poem is a pragmatic and modern conversation about love