She Walks in Beauty What would you associate with if you saw a truly beautiful woman wearing all black with a slight mournful expression on her pale, white face walking past you ? At Byron's pen point, she's described as " the night of cloud-less climes and starry skies," and all that's best of dark and bright meet in her aspect and her eyes. Her breath-taking beauty sparkles with a kind of serenity and elegance which we cannot see from Cecily or Gwendolen or Catherine. She doesn't has to utter a word or eye a look, the focus is on her. So we know she's definite not Catherine that kind. Catherine's wild, brisk and passionate, she's not. ( at least we can't tell from here) Yet she doesn't resemble Cecily and Gwendolen, she seems to be truly elegant. " One shade the more, one ray the less, had half impaired the nameless grace," " or softly lightens o'er her face where thoughts serenely sweet express." Time seemed to stop at this moment when she's walking. She's as beautiful as starry skies, but this somehow create a distance between he and she, because skies are out of reach. It's not like " On Stella's Birthday", in which Stella's age and size are made fun of, but her wit is noticed, here, the beauty of Byron's cousin has become a divine domain where is easily allowed to disturb or trespass. Throughout this poem, we only know about Byron's strong adoration for his cousin but we will never what his cousin 's really like.                                                                         Linda HOME