"She Walks In Beauty"

She Walks in Beauty
BY LORD BYRON

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s 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 o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er 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!

Swoon. "The smiles that win." I definitely wouldn't hate it if someone were to write a similar poem about me.

My favorite thing about this poem, however, is part of an analysis I read online, "It is an astonishingly chaste poem given its author’s reputation for licentiousness, lust, and debauchery." We praise and celebrate his poetry even today, but Lord Byron was kind of a bad dude. Affairs and scandals haunted his life including adultery, violence, and incest. My point is that celebrity worship is not new. The rich and famous can get away with all sorts of things (Biebs - I'm looking at you), and they always have.

William Blake

While learning about some of William Blake’s poetry, I was reminded of a quote I heard once from his work, The Everlasting Gospel.  Blake states, “Both read the Bible day and night, / But thou read’st black where I read white.”  After a little research (namely, Wikipedia), I realized that this work was published posthumously.  It was originally just various, disjointed lines written in margins.  Because it is not a complete work, I may be taking the quote out of context, but for me, it means that we can all gain completely different understandings from the work.  I have been able to read several different interpretations of the same poems in this course, and invariably I find most interesting the postings that vary from the norm, especially the ones that differ from my own opinions.

So far, I have been really impressed with this online course.  It is interesting to see everyone’s reactions to the readings and for real dialogue to occur in this online platform.  As we move forward in the course, I think it will be very important to remember Blake’s words and respect each other’s opinions.