She Walks in Beauty

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1814

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Related Poems

“Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare (1609)

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous—if not the most famous—English playwrights and poets. He published a canonized collection of sonnets, and a handful of those sonnets focus on a mistress or a romantic partner. In “Sonnet 130,” Shakespeare’s speaker resists the temptation to objectify or extoll the stereotypical beauty of the woman he loves. Unlike the speaker in “She Walks in Beauty,” Shakespeare’s speaker praises the woman for not conforming to fetishistic beauty norms. He likes that the woman isn’t completely pure, pleasant, or heavenly. While the beautiful woman in Byron’s poem emits heavenly light, the speaker in Shakespeare’s poem declares, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (Line 1). If Byron’s poem perpetuates sexist notions about beauty, Shakespeare’s sonnet counters them.

“Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820)

Shelley is another major Romantic poet, and his lyric “Ode to the West Wind” highlights the power of nature. In Byron’s poem, nature has a notable amount of authority, as the woman’s beauty is due in part to beauty’s relationship with nature. At times, nature seems like the activating force for beauty in Byron’s lyric. In Shelley’s poem, nature, too, is an animating force. Shelley doesn’t deal with nature through beauty but head-on. Nature bewilders the male speaker, which leads the speaker to exclaim, “O uncontrollable!” (Line 47). In Byron’s poem, the main force is beauty (with a crucial assist from nature), but in Shelley’s poem, the dominant force is pure nature. For Romantics, men and women find themselves moved by things—beauty, nature, or a bit of both—beyond their control.

“What Soft — Cherubic Creatures” by Emily Dickinson (1862)

The enigmatic American poet Emily Dickinson read Lord Byron, and her poem “What Soft — Cherubic Creatures” is something of a reply to the way poets and dominant culture portray women. Dickinson’s speaker mocks the scores of “Gentlewomen” (Line 2) who are so dainty that “One would as soon assault a Plush — Or violate a Star” (Lines 3-4). In the context of Dickinson’s poem, the woman in Byron’s poem comes across as one of the gentlewomen. She, too, seems like a delicate object—almost too precious for the world. Byron celebrates such fragility, while Dickinson’s speaker mocks it, and they arguably hold the gentlewomen responsible for allowing society to place them in such an objectifying role.

Further Literary Resources

Don Juan by Lord Byron (1818)

Don Juan is Lord Byron’s book-length poem and one of his most famous works. While “She Walks in Beauty” shows off Byron’s sentimental and tender side, Don Juan demonstrates his provocative and satirical qualities, as the poem, although ostensibly about the extraordinary adventures of Don Juan, mocks conventional literature and society.

Like “She Walks in Beauty,” Don Juan features a specific rhyme scheme and meter, so the epic poem possesses an agreeable sound throughout. The long poem also presents beautiful or alluring women in the context of innocence and fragility. Don Juan’s first romantic relationship is with an older woman, Julia, whose “small hand” in Canto 1, Stanza 71 is “tremulously gentle.” Through Julia, Byron’s speaker brings together the dark and light aspects of beauty as Julia possesses a “sadness sweeter than her smile” in Canto 1, Stanza 72. Additionally, as with the woman in “She Walks in Beauty,” events beyond Don Juan’s control animate him and put him in several precarious situations.

“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” by Laura Mulvey (1975)

In her influential essay on the male gaze, Mulvey explains how films, particularly the films of Alfred Hitchcock, present women as objects or as things meant for the viewing pleasure of men. Mulvey calls this the male gaze, or, less simply, “[t]he scopophilic instinct (pleasure in looking at another person as an erotic object).” The parenthetical indicates that the male gaze doesn’t have to be male since any person can obtain “pleasure” by looking at another person, so while the speaker in Byron’s could be male, it’s not a foregone conclusion that they are male. As gender norms change and evolve, there are many examples of people who don’t identify as male perpetuating something similar to the male gaze. The work of women photographers like Nan Goldin and Diane Arbus arguably has something in common with the male gaze.

Byron in Love by Edna O’Brien (2009)

Edna O’Brien, a famous and controversial Irish novelist, wrote this compact biography of the English poet. Her book provides a helpful overview of Byron’s life. It covers his relationships with women, men, the literary sphere, and the world at large. She goes into his politics and his personality. Although “She Walks in Beauty” is rather tranquil and balanced, Byron’s life was tumultuous.