How does word choice affect the emotional impact of “she walks in beauty”? pay special attention to connotation rather than denotation. use evidence from the text to support your response.

In “She Walks in Beauty,” Byron describes the simple yet unusual beauty of an unnamed woman. He uses the contrasting imagery of light and dark to paint a picture of beauty that is both earthly and divine at the same time. Byron first describes the woman’s physical beauty using light and dark imagery:

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

By using contrast at the start of the poem, Byron describes a woman of an unusual kind of beauty. In fact, the interplay between shadows and light, and their balance, is the cause of her beauty:

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

These words about dark and light suggest that she is only beautiful when the light is cast on her just right. But by saying that dark and bright meet "in her aspect and her eyes," the balance that they strike seems to be in her very nature—not dependent on external conditions.

In the second and third stanzas, he couples parts of her physical being that radiate this special grace with more obvious inherent qualities, such as her thoughts, smiles, mind, and heart:

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

The final lines of the poem describe several idealized qualities that emanate from her face:

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!

The poem describes a woman whose beauty is far from skin deep. It resonates with and expresses her mind and heart.

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lorna