 |
Nocturne
Literature, both poetry and prose, is often judged by what feelings it is able to evoke in the reader. Establishment of a mood is crucial, therefore, to writing something lasting and worthwhile. Prose authors and poets use a variety of stylistic elements to communicate their tones and themes and to call up strong images or reactions in readers’ minds. In his romantic poem, “She Walks in Beauty,” Lord Byron extensively utilizes diction and a number of musical devices to convey the dual themes of serenity and brilliance.
The first stanza of the piece is an extended simile between the unnamed feminine subject of the poem and the night itself. By contrasting her with “gaudy day” in line 6, Byron identifies the aspects of night to which he means to allude. He also makes use of alliteration in the second line with “cloudless climes and starry skies” in order to add musicality to the already rhythmic poem. Diction such as “beauty,” “mellow’s,” and “tender” first introduce the reader to the theme, and the repetition of the poem’s title in the first line ensures that the reader’s first impression will be the solid metaphorical illustration of “walking in beauty.” The fact that the subject herself is anonymous, but definitely feminine, further adds to the reader’s perception of or even seems to identify womanhood with warmth and loveliness.
In the poem’s second stanza, further portrayal of the subject is made with fanciful, image-filled descriptions of her hair and face. The parallelism in the line 7 (“One shade the more, one ray the less”) is antithetical, but weakly, so that the reader is not jarred or startled with any severe images. The diction in this stanza continues the trend begun in the first with examples such as “grace,” “waves,” “softly,” and “pure.” Line 11 contains a masterful combination of appropriate diction and alliteration with its “serenely sweet.” Other devices such as the replacing of “over” with “o’er” give a stronger impression that this poem is music, perhaps even a hymn.
In the piece’s final stanza, which narrows the description of the subject’s face, her imagined character is also revealed. Diction including “soft,” “calm,” “eloquent,” “peace,” and “innocent” is employed throughout. The entire stanza can be read as one sentence filled with parallel structure listing different facets of this lady observed by the reverent and admiring speaker, ending with the two traits of “A mind at peace with all below, / A heart whose love is innocent” (17-18)! The use of an exclamation point at the end of the final line seems to imply that such an occurrence is rare and precious, and this emphasis adds a quality of sublimity to the lady and a note of passion to the speaker.
Lord Byron’s skilful use of all manners of stylistic devices produces a poem of exquisite beauty flushed with striking thematic depictions of the tranquility and splendor of one woman-- or, perhaps, all women.
|
 |
