she walks in beauty - lord byron

author context? (2 points)

• romantic poet

• wrote about forbidden and unrequited love

poem context?

written as an ode to a woman married to the poet’s cousin

lady in the poem is never named - effect?

gives her mystique

‘like the night’ - technique and effect? how does it relate to context? (3 points)

• simile

• adds mystery - she is in darkness

• the woman the poem is for wore a mourning dress

‘of cloudless climes and starry skies’ - technique? meaning?

• alliteration - adds to image of perfection

• compares woman to concepts, dehumanises her

‘ all that’s best of dark and bright’ …? (2 points)

• superlative of ‘best’ - idolizes her

• ‘dark and bright’ - oxymoron, shows good and evil traits, innuendo

‘thus mellow’d to that tender light / which heaven to gaudy day denies’ …?

contrast between ‘gaudy’ and ‘tender’ - the lady is better than the sun

‘one shade the more, one ray the less, / had half impair’d the nameless grace’ …? (2 points)

• shadows hide her beauty

• juxtaposed opposites add to rhythm

‘the nameless grace’…?

‘grace’ is religious - saintly quality

‘so soft, so calm, yet eloquent’…?

repetition, tricolon, alliteration - lyrical balance

‘a mind at peace with all below’…? (2 points)

• could suggest death - she loves those she has lost

• or her body reflects her inner peace