The two forces involved in Byron’s poem are the darkness and light- at work in the woman’s beauty, and also the two areas of her beauty- the internal and the external. The poem appears to be about a lover, but in fact was written about Byron’s cousin, Anne Wilmot, who he met at a party. She was wearing a mourning dress of spangled black. This fact, the black dress that was brightened with spangles, helps the reader to understand the origin of the poem. Byron portrays this, the mixing of the darkness and the light, not by describing the dress or the woman’s actions, but by describing her physical beauty as well as her interior strengths.

In the beginning of the poem, the reader is given the image of darkness: “She walks in beauty, like the nigh

But tell of days in goodness spent,

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

Some topics in this essay:
Anne Wilmot, Walks Beauty”, Walks Beauty, George Byron’s, physical beauty, byron’s poem, heart love innocent, darkness light, walks beauty, “she walks, love innocent, heart love, mind peace, below heart love, mellowed tender light, shade ray half, stanza byron, beauty night, ray half impaired,