Written by Isabella Halteman. Graphic by Anna Porter.
Romantic: exciting, mysterious and having strong effect on your emotions
The Romantic Era (Romanticism, Romantic Movement) was an artistic and intellectual movement in the late eighteenth century originating in Europe. This movement was a response to the Industrial Revolution, the Age of Enlightenment and the rise of Neoclassicism. The heart of this movement was in appreciating emotion, nature, individualism and a fondness for the past, particularly the Middle Ages. The Romantic Era valued intense emotion and imagination over logic and rational thought. Individualism was important in celebrating the individual, advocating the importance of self-expression and arguing for the rights of the individual over a larger social group or state. They sought to showcase the beauty of the sublime and human emotion through art, music, literature and prose.
For such a short amount of time, there is an immense amount of art that was produced during this movement by Romanticists. Prominent poets early in this movement include William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Shelley (Mary Shelley’s father), William Wordsworth and many more. Artists in other mediums include Beethoven (music), Francisco Goya (visual art) and John William Waterhouse (visual art). Visual art at the time focused on sprawling landscapes, capturing human emotion and later bordered on fantastical depictions with humans and creatures together in nature.
After that lengthy introduction, I would like to bring us to today’s topic and focus, Lord Byron’s piece “She Walks in Beauty,” a lyric poem describing the beauty of a young woman. This piece was written in 1814 and published in 1815 in Byron’s poetry collection “Hebrew Melodies.” I chose this piece because while it is a Romantic Era poem, it is also romantic as in romance and love, considering Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Romance (love) poems have their place, but I think Romanticism encapsulates values that keep us all present and appreciative of the people and things around us every day. Which is what I like to personally focus on during holidays such as Valentine’s Day. The story behind this poem is said to be that Byron attended a party in an evening of June 1814 with a friend and was enraptured by the wife of his cousin whom he had never met. The poem’s theme is this young woman’s beauty both outside and in.
The rhythm and structure of the poem are established in the first two lines and stay consistent except for line 6. The lines mostly follow iambic tetrameter; a line consists of four unstressed and four stressed syllables (line 6 has nine). The use of alliteration in this poem makes it very pleasant to the ear, I encourage you to read the piece aloud and feel how phrases such as “cloudless climes; starry skies” feel coming out of your mouth. Poems are meant to be heard, read and performed. Only reading them in your head will not give you a full exploration of the piece. Other literary devices (shoutout AP Literature) utilized include similes and metaphors, personification and imagery.
Byron has a pattern of light and dark imagery in his works and this piece is a prime example. In the first two stanzas, he contrasts light with dark and white with black, referring to shadows in the cloudless starlit sky of the night. In line 3, he writes, “And all that’s best of dark and bright,” then he mentions how light and dark come together in her “raven tress” (line 9). Byron brings these opposites together to emphasize her beauty.
You do not have to be able to identify technical parts of a poem to appreciate and experience them. Specifically for poetry and prose from the Romantic Era, it is important to focus on how the words make you feel, what images come to mind and how those make you feel. Emotion is one of the few things that can never be taken from you. Learn to cherish it, and cherish poetry in the same vein.
Isabella Halteman is a Junior Performing Arts major with a minor in Vocal Performance. She is a Copy Editor for District, editing and publishing articles on our website. She also enjoys writing poetry and creative personal essays. Outside of school, you can find her singing in her car, baking and cooking, and watching old movies.
