A Comparison Of She Walks In Beauty And When We Two Parted

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George Gordon Lord Byron’s poems “She Walks in Beauty” and “When We Two Parted” are written to contrast against each other. “She Walks in Beauty” is iambic tetrameter whereas “When We Two Parted” lacks a specific and consistent meter. This is to show that before their breakup all goes well but after their breakup Lord Byron’s life is disjointed like the poem. The rhyme scheme of “She Walks in Beauty” is ABABAB CDCDCD etc., and that of “When We Two Parted” is ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH etc. The poem and each stanza are longer in “When We Two Parted” although the rhymes are shorter. This form matches the content: while his relationship is short, it is beautiful. After his breakup, it feels like a long time before he heals himself but it is not as nice. …show more content…

The fact that both quotes begin in line 9 of their respective poems is significant in showing that the contrast between them was intentional. This comparison shows that Lord Byron sees his lover as the light and himself as the darkness. This holds throughout the poems, attributing negative things to himself and positive things to his girlfriend even after their breakup when he calls her dear (line 20, “When We Two …show more content…

This statement shows that he feels ‘lower’ than his girlfriend and compares her to God, as God looks down at the world below. This predicts the downfall of their relationship. Under the Blakean perspective, the girlfriend will fall for allowing herself to be put on a pedestal, and under a ‘traditional’ perspective, the narrator will fall like the fall from Eden. Either way, the relationship is doomed from this line on. “She Walks in Beauty” does not talk directly to the girlfriend, but “When We Two Parted” does. In “She Walks in Beauty,” the auditor is whoever cares to listen while Lord Byron brags about his lover, but in “When We Two Parted,” the auditor is his ex-girlfriend directly. The form matches this content: Lord Byron writes in a lyrical almost nursery-rhyme format while discussing his lover but once he is actually conversing with his lover he is angrier and less

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