Byron
... try harder to look at the inner beauty rather than the physical beauty. The line that is most significant to me is the very last line which is 18, “A heart whose love is innocent.” Throughout the whole poem Byron is talking about the woman’s outer beauty and the end of the poem states that her heart is innocent and her mind is peaceful. He cares about her outer beauty but the thing that matters the most is her heart. This whole poem is talking about how her outer beauty is so beautiful because of her inner beauty reflecting through it. I just love the last line because it is the most important line. The only thing that should matter in life is who you are on the inside. The theme is about a beautiful woman and all of her features. 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 external. The poem is actually about Byron’s cousin Anne Wilmot, who he met at a party in a dress of spangled black. The black dress that was brightened with spangles helps us to understand the origin of the poem. Byron portrays this mixing of the darkness and the light, not by describing the dress or the women’s actions, but by describing her physical beauty as well as her interior strengths. We are given the image of darkness: “she walks in beauty, like the night,” but then the line continues explaining that the night is cloudless and the stars are bright. So immediately the poem brings together its two opposing forces that are at work, darkness and light. In lines three and four Byron emphasizes that the unique feature of the woman is her ability to contain opposites within her. “The best of dark and bright/meet” in her. The joining together of the darkness and the light can be seen in her “aspect” or appearance, but also in her “eyes.” In this case, the woman’s eyes aren’t to be associated with a physical feature but more as an internal aspect of her; the eyes reveal her heart. There not only is an opposing force between the darkness and the light, but also between the woman’s outer beauty and inner beauty. Th...