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Mindy Medrana
February 27, 2014
Lord Byron on Love
Lord George Gordon Byron, like many poets during the second phase of the Romantic
Movement (early 1800s) in England, is identified with his poems of passion. He is also known
for engaging in numerous affairs with married women, men, and even his half-sister. However,
does he genuinely love those individuals with which he commits adultery? Certainly, if he can
persuade married women to be unfaithful, they must believe him to be sincere. One of these
women, the presumed subject of When We Two Parted, is Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster,
wife of Sir James Webster, who has an affair with the Duke of Wellington, thus betraying both
her husband and Lord Byron. The subject of She Walks in Beauty is Byrons cousin, Mrs.
Wilmot. Lord Byron may have grown indifferent to the subjects of his affairs, but he is truly
infatuated with the subjects of both poems, "When We Two Parted and "She Walks in Beauty,"
as substantiated by his use of the ABABCDCD and ABABAB rhyme scheme, scansions of
dimeters and iambic tetrameters, and tropes such as symbolism, personification, and similes.
Lord Byron inaugurates the themes of his poems in the rhyme scheme. The ABABCDCD
rhyme scheme is repeated in each of the four octets of When We Two Parted, progressing
through subtopics within each stanza ("When We"). The stanzas themselves have a chiastic
structure that accentuates his isolation and sorrow for the separation with Lady Frances Webster.
The second and third octaves are similar in topic, speaking of the anguish now associated with
Lady Websters name. Likewise, the first octave, where his introduction is about the parting in
silence and tears (2), connects to the last octave, where his conclusion is about a possible future
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meeting with silence and tears (32) (Summary). The ABABAB rhyme scheme in each sestet
of She Walks in Beauty reiterates Byrons finding and observing the balance of two forces in
Mrs. Wilmot; dark and light, as well as inner and outer beauty ("She Walks").
Evidence of sincerity as well as cleverness is translucent to the reader and obscured in the
scansion of both of Byrons poems. The long stanzas found in When We Two Parted
emphasize the tangled and complicated nature of the emotions the speaker is experiencing
while dimeters make the poem "concise" and "flowing" (When We). These contradictions are
the manifestation of the counteracting thoughts haunting and crowding in the writers head.
Since iambic tetrameter is generally applied to poems of sincerity and simplicity (Moran),
She Walks in Beauty also demonstrates true passion.
The tropes utilized by the poet remind readers of the milieu of the poems and articulate
the themes. In When We Two Parted, Byron chooses the euphony of a knell to symbolize
Lady Websters name (18). His word choice dates the poem back to England in the early 19
th

century, when knell was commonly used because it described the sound of a bell rung,
paraphernalia of funerals. He considers her betrayal to be as painful as if she had died. In spite of
this mourning, the first line of She Walks in Beauty contains a flattering simile: She walks in
beauty, like the night/Of cloudless climes and starry skies (1-2). The readers first impression of
Mrs. Wilmot is that she can be compared to a starry night. Thus he introduces the equilibrium of
dark and light in her. The last stanza focuses more on the equilibrium of inner and outer beauty
with a personification of her smile: The smiles that win, the tints that glow,/But tell of days in
goodness spent (15-16).
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Certain critics, such as Northrop Frye and Herbert Read, disagree with the notion that
Lord Byron would write these poems for the purpose of venting intense emotions rather than the
sole purpose of winning over the woman whom he is currently attracted to (Kukathas). Frye says
of She Walks in Beauty in particular, that it has flat conventional diction, and is
insignificant. Read also criticizes Byrons work for not having originality of application
or collocation. George Byron intended this, not to draw attention to his own literary genius and
achievements, but to simply impress the women with clich romance. Nevertheless, Byron did in
fact deliberately utilize rhyme scheme and scansion because "poetic form . . . and content . . . are
almost always related" (She Walks).
It is common sense to believe that as a philanderer, Lord Byron was only interested in his
own pleasure when he had affairs with the multitude of individuals, and not the individuals
themselves. Evidence gathered from the poems analyzed would prove that he cared for Lady
Frances Webster and Mrs. Wilmot, out of the hundreds of women he flirted with. The poems
were written after the affairs, so he could not have utilized them to persuade the women of his
affection for them. Critics also agree that he felt genuine attachment to them. For Byron, poetry
was his diary and the spout to his kettle through which he could release steam when it became
too much for him to bear.




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Works Cited
Dominic, Catherine Critical Essay on "When We Two Parted," in Poetry for Students, Gale,
Cengage Learning, 2009. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Frye, Northrop, George Gordon, Lord Byron, in Major British Writers, Vol. II, Harcourt,
Brace and Company, 1959, pp. 15253. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Mar.
2014.
Kelly, David Critical Essay on She Walks in Beauty, in Poetry for Students, The Gale Group,
2002. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
Kukathas, Uma Critical Essay on She Walks in Beauty, in Poetry for Students, The Gale
Group, 2002. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Moran, Daniel Critical Essay on She Walks in Beauty, in Poetry for Students, The Gale Group,
2002. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
Read, Herbert, Byron, The British Council, 1951, p. 24. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3
Mar. 2014.
"She Walks in Beauty." Poetry for Students. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 14. Detroit: Gale
Group, 2002. 267-281.Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
"Summary and analysis of 'When We Two Parted.'" Grade Saver. GradeSaver LLC. Web. 26
Feb. 2014.
"When We Two Parted." Poetry for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 29. Detroit: Gale, 2009.
295-310. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
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When We Two Parted
WHEN we two parted

In silence and tears,

Half broken-hearted

To sever for years,

Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
5
Colder thy kiss;

Truly that hour foretold

Sorrow to this.



The dew of the morning

Sunk chill on my brow
10
It felt like the warning

Of what I feel now.

Thy vows are all broken,

And light is thy fame:

I hear thy name spoken,
15
And share in its shame.



They name thee before me,

A knell to mine ear;

A shudder comes o'er me

Why wert thou so dear?
20
They know not I knew thee,

Who knew thee too well:

Long, long shall I rue thee,

Too deeply to tell.



In secret we met
25
In silence I grieve,

That thy heart could forget,

Thy spirit deceive.

If I should meet thee

After long years,
30
How should I greet thee?

With silence and tears.






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She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all thats best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens oer her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and oer that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!