She Walks in Beauty
George Gordon Byron
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!
"She Walks in Beauty" is a famous poem by British Romantic poet Lord Byron, first published in 1815. The poem praises and seeks to capture a sense of the beauty of a particular woman. The speaker compares this woman to a lovely night with a clear starry sky, and goes on to convey her beauty as a harmonious "meeting" between darkness and light. After its discussion of physical attractiveness, the poem then portrays this outer beauty as representative of inner goodness and virtue.
Summary
The speaker compares a beautiful woman—who is walking—to a clear night sky full of bright stars. The finest light and darkness come together in harmony in this woman's appearance, particularly within her eyes. This gentle and delicate play of light is heavenly—indeed, heaven usually refuses to grant this supernatural light to the showy daytime.
A touch more shade or even one ray of light would have greatly diminished the woman's beauty. This beauty, which is hard to put into words, shows itself in every strand of the woman's hair, and gently falls on her face. Her sweet, angelic emotions play out on her face, revealing how pure and precious this woman is.
On the woman's cheek and forehead—softly and calmly, but noticeably—appear winning smiles and a glowing skin tone. These features reveal that the woman spends her days virtuously, that she possesses a peaceful mind, and that she has an innocent, loving heart.
Themes
Beauty and Harmony
As its title might suggest, “She Walks in Beauty” is a poem that praises a woman’s beauty. More specifically, it presents that beauty as a kind of harmony that is as perfect as it is rare. Indeed, that’s the main point of the poem—that this particular woman’s beauty is practically unparalleled because of the exquisite harmony and visual balance of her looks. Beauty, the poem thus suggests, is perfection achieved through harmony. And as the poem progresses, it makes clear that this harmony is delicate and fragile—potentially altered by even the smallest of changes.
The poem begins by establishing a sense of the speaker’s wonder at the woman’s majestic beauty. The speaker doesn’t say that the woman walks beautifully—but that she walks in beauty. This unusual construction helps with the sense that the woman’s beauty is truly remarkable, so vast and impressive that it seems to surround this woman like an aura or cloud. The poem quickly reveals what it believes to be the source of such beauty: the woman’s physical appearance brings together “all that’s best of dark and bright.” This suggests that beauty is a harmony between distinct elements—darkness and light. Beauty takes the “best” of these elements and places them in a delicate balance.
The poem then expands on this marriage of light and dark in stanza 2. Here, beauty is presented as almost beyond language, a “nameless grace.” The complex and intensely beautiful interplay between light (“ray[s]”) and dark (“shade”) is made possible only by the shape and contours of the woman’s physical appearance. This reinforces the idea that beauty is a kind of perfection achieved through harmony.
Part of the power of beauty is in its rarity. As lines 5 and 6 make clear, the woman’s harmonious beauty is not an everyday occurrence—this interplay of light and dark is the exclusive preserve of “heaven,” not the “gaudy day[s]” of life on earth. Beauty, then, also has an air of the divine or supernatural that contributes to this sense of rarity—comparable to sighting a comet or eclipse, perhaps. Furthermore, beauty is all-the-rarer because the harmony required for it to exist is so fragile. In the second stanza, the speaker outlines how even one shade—or one ray—out of place in the interplay of light and dark on the woman’s hair would upset her beauty; indeed, it would be “half impaired.”
It’s also worth noting that the common literary associations of darkness tend to be mystery and fear (in the works of Edgar Allan Poe, for example). Contrastingly, light is often linked to purity, beauty, and love (e.g., Carol Ann Duffy’s “Valentine” or Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) The beauty in “She Walks in Beauty” depends on both light and dark, bringing them together in harmony. Accordingly, the woman’s beauty is all the more powerful and uncommon. “She Walks in Beauty,” then, is a poem that cherishes physical beauty and perfection. In the figure of the woman that it addresses, it sees an unparalleled example of perfect beauty and seeks to explain it, even though it may prove impossible to characterize its “nameless grace,” as a type of rare harmony that brings together light and dark.
Inner Beauty vs. Outer Beauty
While “She walks in Beauty” primarily focuses on physical beauty, it also explores the relationship between inner beauty and outer beauty. It portrays these concepts as closely interconnected. Indeed, the woman’s outer appearance is read as a sign of her inner serenity, peacefulness, and innocence.
The poem develops a sense of physical beauty before introducing the idea that this type of beauty is linked to a person’s interior state. Lines 1-10 help the reader grasp just how rare and powerful this woman’s beauty is, which is further presented as a delicate—near impossible—balance between light and dark.
The poem then shifts, however, and begins to discuss the relationship between this outer loveliness and the woman's inner self. The woman’s face is portrayed as the site on which her thoughts are “expressed.” These thoughts, in turn, are characterized as “serenely sweet”; the poem maps the harmoniousness of the woman’s beauty onto her presumed inner state (that is, since she is so lovely, her thoughts must also be lovely). Indeed, the expression of her thoughts on her face serves to reinforce the purity and “dearness” (preciousness) of their “dwelling-place.” This could be interpreted as the thoughts reinforcing the woman’s outer beauty, or perhaps they speak of a kind of beauty that incorporates both physical appearance and personality/character.
The third stanza picks up on the development of lines 11 and 12, focusing on the relationship between inner and outer beauty. The speaker lists the woman’s fine features—her “cheek,” “brow,” “smiles,” and “tints” (skin)—and suggests that they express an inner goodness. In other words, her good looks are the sign of good virtues: the speaker believes that woman spends her days in “goodness,” has a peaceful mind, and a loving, innocent heart.
Outer beauty, then, becomes a symbol of inner beauty. Indeed, this inner beauty enhances the outer beauty because, if the outer beauty is linked to the woman’s facial expressions, these expressions are the result of inner emotions. Her outer beauty and inner “goodness” are in a kind of feedback loop, each intensifying the other.
Of course, it’s up to the reader to decide how much this idea convinces them. The poem spends most of its time focusing on physical beauty, and the reader learns little about the woman other than what the speaker tells them. Regardless, in the speaker’s opinion at least, outer beauty is a reflection of inner beauty—and indeed, both are in harmony with one another.
그녀는 아름답게 걷는다
구름 한 점 없는 별밤 하늘처럼
그녀 걷는 모습 아리따워라
어둠과 밝음의 알짜배기들이
그녀의 얼굴과 눈에서 만나
휘황한 한낮의 하늘에선 볼 수 없는
부드러운 빛으로 무르녹았네
그늘이 조금만 더해도, 빛살이 조금만 덜해도
칠흑 같은 머리칼에 물결치는
아니 그 얼굴 은은히 밝혀주는
신비로운 아리따움 반쯤 손상됐으리
정갈하고 달콤한 생각들이 그 얼굴에서 말해주네
그 생각 지닌 곳 얼마나 해맑고 사랑스런가를
그리고 부드럽고 그윽하면서도 또렷한
저 볼과 이마 언저리에
매혹적인 미소와 빛나는 얼굴빛이
선하게 살아온 지난날을
땅 위의 모든 것과 화평한 마음을
순진한 사랑 깃든 가슴을 말해 주네
바이런은 어느 모임에서 반짝이는 장식품이 달린 검은 상복 차림의 사촌누이 윌멋 호튼(Wilmot Horton)을 만났다고 합니다. 그녀의 아름다움에 매혹당해서 이튿날 새벽에 바로 썼다고 전해지는 이 시는 그 후로 여인의 아름다운 모습을 묘사하는 데에 많이 인용되고 있습니다.
바이런은 이 시를 통해서 자신이 동경하는 이상적인 여인상을 그려내고 있습니다. 더 나아가서 완벽한 아름다움에 대한 그의 이상향을 표현했다고 볼 수도 있을 것입니다. 이 시에서 아름다움은 밝음과 어두움의 조화로운 관계 속에서 비롯됩니다. 또 선량한 마음씨와 고상한 성품이 아름다운 얼굴과 우아한 외모와 조화를 이루는 것이 품격 높은 아름다움이며, 외모의 아름다움과 내면의 우아한 정신이 일치하는 모습이 가장 완벽한 아름다움으로 묘사됩니다.
인용문은 이 시의 첫째 연인데, 여기에서 어두운 밤이 아름다운 것은 반짝이는 별이 있기 때문이며, 역으로 별빛이 아름다운 것은 어두운 밤이 있기 때문이라고 묘사됩니다. 그래서 여인의 아름다움을 “별이 빛나는 밤”으로 표현했으며, 그 아름다움은 “어둠과 밝음”의 최상의 정수들이 그녀의 얼굴과 외모에서 합쳐진 것으로 표현합니다. 그녀의 아름다움은 휘황찬란한 한낮의 밝은 빛 속에서는 결코 볼 수 없는 “부드러운 빛”으로 표현됩니다.
겉모습만 휘황찬란한 아름다움이 아닌, 내적으로도 완숙한 아름다움을 표현하기 위해서 빛과 어둠의 절묘한 조화를 선택한 것입니다. 바이런은 너무 찬란하게 빛나는 눈 부신 햇살도 아니고, 그렇다고 지나치게 캄캄한 어둠도 아닌, 그 둘의 완벽한 조화의 상태가 “부드러운 빛”이며, 그것이 그가 가장 이상적으로 여기는 아름다움이라고 이야기합니다.
이 시에서 묘사하는 그윽한 아름다운 용모의 여인은 미소와 빛나는 얼굴 속에서 그와 조화를 이룬 선량한 마음, 모든 존재와 평화로운 소통을 하는 온유한 품성, 그리고 순결한 사랑이 깃든 마음의 소유자로 표현됩니다. 이 시는 이상적인 아름다움은 빛과 어둠이, 육체와 정신이 서로 조화를 이루며 상응하는 관계 속에서 이루어진다는 것을 아름다운 여인의 모습에 대한 적절한 언어의 구사와 절묘한 비유의 사용을 통해서 절제된 감정으로 생생하게 표현하고 있습니다.