Skip to main content
Like
Create new Glog
previous
next
Email share
243 views | 0 likes | 0 reposts
Now I want to use another poem to illustrate, so that we haven’t seen this in just one poem, but two. This is a poem by Lord George Gordon Byron, called “She Walks In Beauty”:
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!
The first thing we notice is that it rhymes: ‘night’, ‘bright’ and ‘light, and in between these: ‘skies’, ‘eyes’ and ‘denies’. We can write the rhythm as a, b, a, c, a, b. We also see one thing that’s identical in the two poems: the use of “o’er”. First in “Daffodils”, when “That floats on high o’er vales and hills”, and again in this poem: “or softly lightens o’er her face”. What has happened? “O’er” means “over”, the v has just transformed into an apostrophe. Why is this? Well, it is because the author want their poems to be more oral: the poems will be read, out loud, and then, it just comes more natural to say it like “o’er” than “over.” Notice what kind of language and atmosphere’s in the poem? Firstly, it’s mostly positive adjectives. The whole atmosphere is light and warm. The poem is about a woman that’s so beautiful, it’s hard to describe her. Even her heart “whose love is innocent”. These are also characteristics of a Romantic poem.
