She walks in beauty:
This poem seems dark because right in the first line the speaker says "She walks in beauty like the night" -line 1. This is contrary to most notions of beauty which are associated with bright, happy, colorful, red roses type of symbols. The setting of this entire poems seems to be strange. Instead of being set in a bright and cheery day he sets it when "One shade the more, one ray the less" line 7; as if to say it is not bright, but its not totally dark. It's a "perfect" setting for the mood he seems to be conveying. He also mentions "raven tress" in line 9. As we know ravens are black birds, there again a notion of darkness. When I read the line about the raven trees I pictured dark trees swaying in the wind on a night with a full moon. I assumed the full moon because of the line where he said "One shade the more, one ray the less" line 7. He does find the girl beautiful, but it seems that he finds her beautiful for different reasons than her outer beauty. Possibly he is referring to her inner beauty?
So, we'll go no more a-roving:
This poem was written after Lord Byron left England and went to Venice. It can be seen as a poem about maturing, as he talks about "the sword outwears its sheath" in line 5. Possibly this is expressing how Byron has moved on from his previous life, and this poem reflects the change. I believe he wrote this poem to explain to a friend the changes in his life, and how he feels about it all. It seems especially appropriate since his early drafts mention Carnival, the so called "farewell to flesh" that precedes Lent, which is a period of sacrifice and self reflection. (footnote page 358). This can be perceived as a correlation to presonal growth, the immaturity of youth followed by the wisdom of experience and age.
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1 comment:
Jenny,
This post was OK, but did not seem as focused or as coherently developed as your better ones. You do provide a lot of quoted phrases and passages from the poems, but not it is hard to follow your observations about them without some context. It is often better to quote a longer passage than a singe line; look for "verse sentences"--that is, the lines that make up a sustained and complete statement in the poem. A single sentence may span numerous lines, but if you just quote one of them it can be hard for it to make much sense.
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