Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Response to Enotes analysis of "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron
After reading your copy of the enotes summary on "She Walks in Beauty," please write one paragraph summarizing the usage of enjambment and change in meter as noted in the article. Try to not use any quotes. I am wanting you to truly comprehend what the article is saying, and then put it into your own words.
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“She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron uses both enjambment and meter to express meaning. The use of enjambment indicates that the meaning of two consecutive lines is mean to be read as not only on grammatical statement, but also interpreted as one concurrent notion. This interpretation is essential to understanding with full clarity the intent of the author. Byron also uses variations in his meter to bring certain elements to light. For example, at the beginning of the fourth line, Byron uses the word “meet” to provide a variation of meter. This use of a trochaic foot in place of the expected iambic foot breaks the conventional pattern of meter and thereby emphasizes the message of the word. Byron is exemplifying the unusual quality of the woman’s beauty by demonstrating how the perfect proportions of dark and light are conveyed in her countenance. His use of these elements communicates to the reader the precise intent of his message concerning this woman’s beauty.
ReplyDeleteExcellent job!
DeleteLord Byron uses enjambment and meter in "She Walks in Beauty" to emphasize the characteristics of the woman to whom he holds to high esteem. Enjambment is to be read as once complete sentence and is used to express one complete thought. For example, the first line states, "She walks in beauty, like the night," and the second line continues, "Of cloudless climes and starry skies." These two lines should be read as if they're one because without the first, the meaning of the first like is unable to be fully expressed. In line four, Byron switches from an iambic foot to a trochaic foot to emphasize that the woman to whom he is referring to is a perfect mixture of both darkness and light.
ReplyDeleteGood job! Make sure on your AP test that you do not define the literary elements to the reader.
DeleteWhile authors primarily use enjambment to lengthen a thought and to keep their poem flowing, George Gordon and Lord Byron additionally use this technique, along with purposeful metric changes, to draw attention to key points in "She Walks in Beauty." From the title, readers immediately grasp the poem's subject, a beautiful woman, and the first two actual lines of the poem introduce the description of her beauty. Though the first line reveals the entity to which the woman's beauty is compared, the night; it is the second line that expands on that comparison and presents the overarching theme of the woman's beauty. The authors needed to use enjambment here because the whole concept of the woman's paradoxical, light-dark beauty could not be summed up in the first line. Indeed, it was not enough to know that her beauty was like the night, the readers had to grasp that the night was both cloudless and star-filled, intermixing the two opposing forces. Through the rest of the poem, Lord Byron and Gordon repeatedly use enjambment to highlight their descriptions of her beauty, the contrasts between light and dark within her one person, and how two such opposite powers, when evenly combined, create the perfect beauty that travels beyond physical beauty to internal beauty. The woman possesses not just a lovely appearance but also a good, peaceful, loving mind to accompany it.
ReplyDeleteVery well done! Don't forget to mention the change in meter from iambic to trochaic.
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