I Stand in Awe

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Recommended: Representation of love in poetry

I Stand in Awe

I Stand in Awe.

Love can mean different things according to circumstances, the objects of affection, and the person experiencing the feeling. Correspondingly, many things can characterize love as well. Yet, one of the most common 'syndromes' is admiration, in other words, awe. Two poets George Gordon and Percy Bysshe Shelly describe such reverence in their poems "She Walks in Beauty" and "To a Skylark". In both of these poems the characters experience this felling. One experiences it towards a woman, another, towards a skylark. Even though the relationships between the characters and the objects of their affections are fundamentally different, the admiration that they feel is somewhat similar.

In "She Walks in Beauty" the character describes a woman. He is so taken by her beauty, that it is not even her physical appearance that captures him; it is her mere presence. In his description of her, the author draws comparisons and descriptions to this woman's beauty from everywhere in nature. In the first stanza of the poem he gives her a kind of a mystical and dream like quality by comparing her to the night. The description of the eyes and the face of this phantom of the night is breathtaking, yet, somehow disturbing. "And all that's best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and her eyes", a face that belong to a saint and a sinner at the same time is not meant to be seen by the human eyes (Byron, lines 3-4).

The following two stanzas deal with this woman's beauty as well, but mostly they discuss her emotional being. To the author she appears calm, at peace with herself, pure and innocent in her affections. It is as though this woman is a child inside, uncomplicated and not hardened by the harsh realities of life. "A mind at peace with all below, / A heart whose love is innocent!" (Byron, lines 17-18). The line about her mind being at peace with all below can suggest one of two things. Either the author is trying to give her an air like quality, someone very light and gracious. Or, that she is above the rest of the human race in a sense that she is not concerned with earthly problems, and therefore is not bothered by them at all; since her spirituality is far more precious and she posses a true understanding of the universe.

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