Lord Byron Research Paper

Cooper Eyre
Dr. Johnston
British Literature
13 MARCH 2013
Turning Heads in Beauty The Romantic period, year 1785 till 1830 C.E., was a period of great change throughout the world, especially but not only in literary style. This period saw the formation of new countries, new governing styles, and the birth of many new ways of thinking. In this time British Literature was characterized by the work of six major writers, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy, Shelly, Keats, and Blake. (Book page 1363-4). Lord Byron, as described by Hipolyte Taine, a French critic of the late romantic, said that Lord Byron was “the greatest and most English of these artists;’ he is so great and so English that from him alone we shall learn more truths
of his country and of his age than all the rest together.” (Christ 1364-6). Lord Byron was born to “Mad Jack” Byron and Catherine Gordon on January 22, 1788 in London.
His parents, who ran into money troubles, fell apart drastically, shortly after his birth. His father died shortly after and his mother moved back to Scotland. Born with what was possibly a club foot, Byron spent many years in and out of what the time called doctor’s offices. Not being the most physically active child, he spent much of his time learning and reading, having an extremely retentive memory. Fortunately for British Literature of the time, Byron inherited, not only his mother’s aristocratic pride, but also her radical political ideals (Franklin 1-3). This would come into play once he began to write for himself. Being Scottish, he was well accustomed to the Old Testament of the Bible, Scots identifying with the Jewish community because of religious persecution, which would play a large role in the pieces he published for the Hebrew Melodies in
1815. One of the more famous of the poems that Lord Byron published in the Hebrew Melodies was “She walks in beauty” written in 1814.
This works was inspired by the wedding of one of Byron’s cousin, Robert John Wilmot to Anne Wilmot. (Christ 1671-5). This piece describes Anne as he saw her at the wedding. This poem, being one of the shortest composed by Byron, is one of the loveliest and yet has not received as much literary attention. (Needler 19-21). This poem was read and used by Nathan in the composition of The Hebrew Melodies, because Nathan saw this work as being a celebration of the mystical union of the female manifestation of the “Divine Presence.” (Franklin 405). Nathan only chose to include the first stanza of Byron’s work in the melodies however, as he saw the first stanza to creates and artificial stasis, a stasis which prevented progress instead of promoting progress. When Nathan separated the stanza from the following two, the poem transformed the objectification of the women, here Anne, to the symbol of man’s birth into sin and estrangement for the Almighty(Studies in Romanticism p 406) . Here is a copy of the first stanza from the original Hebrew Melodies:
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 mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
She walks in beauty-like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies. (Byron)

This section of the poem omits all of the beautiful language used in the second and third stanza. This leaves the reader to only understand that the women being described is one of great beauty and status. Nathan uses this mystery to become a symbol of the Jewish people’s contemporary state, one of the absence of God and quite patience waiting for their Messiah. (Franklin 425) The rest of the poem, when included in full continues to tell of the women, known to be Anne Wilmot. She is a women, to Byron, of such beauty that he cannot control himself, and almost seems jealous of his cousin, coveting his new wife. He describes her in the end of the poem as “A mind at peace with all below,/ A heart whose love is innocent!” This sets Anne above what Bryon sees as the women he is in the constant company of, being a well-known womanizer. Howard Needles, in his paper “’She walks in Beauty’ and the Theory of the Sublime”, addresses the idea that Bryon references the sublime nature of humans in the first stanza from the sources of inspiration and in the rest of the poem as referencing her character to the sublime nature. He describes Byron’s description is the first stanza as using her outward description as one of the greatest beauty, an animalistic beauty. While the second stanza describes Anne’s inward beauty one of greater thought and consciousness. These lines in the second stanza set her apart from the rest of the women that Byron has contact with. Bryon is wanting something more than the odd experiences of a womanizer is a society that looks down on his actions. This poem is one of great beauty and depth, in both a spiritual and natural way. Bryon uses simple words to describe both the natural physical beauty of Anne Wilmot and her deeper, less physical beauty. He shows, in this short poem, the conflict within himself, a conflict of the flesh and the spirit. The flesh yarning for a companion of such external beauty, and the spirit wanting something more, something set above the rest of the low uncivil people. Bryon gives the literature body, as a whole, a great look into the mind of those of the Satanic School of thought during the Romantic Era, while still misunderstanding what he is wanting something more, something of more meaning. I chose this work because while in high school, I came across this poem. I quotes this poem to my high school sweetheart, though we are no longer together, the physical description of Anne in the first stanza described, I saw as, describing not only the physical beauty of her and my own personal feelings toward her. I did not understand the deep meaning of the poem then, and still find more and more in it each time I read it. The main reason I chose it four years ago to describe Brittany was that the first stanza describes, almost perfectly, the dress she wore to prom. Being a rather left brained person, quoting such a beautiful poem that described her so well, made not only her, but her entire family, my mother, and everyone we were with before prom burst into tears. I included this, not to sway my grade, but because this poem bring back many memories to my mind that I do not ever want to forget, thought she is no longer in my life.