How Alexander Pope Would Have Appreciated Lord Byron’s 'She Walks in Beauty'

She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron happens to be one of those poems that have often been regarded with great honor and appreciation by critics. Alexander Pope, one of the greatest 18^th century poets had some views about good writing. It is necessary to mention in this regard that his concept about ‘good writing’ was valued beyond measure in his time and is so even now. Let us now make an attempt to analyze how Alexander Pope with all his unique concepts about perfect writing and perfect poetry would have appreciated She Walks in Beauty by Byron.

Pope is typically characterized by his fondness for wit and satire. Any literary work that makes a sophisticated use of wit and satire must please him. Most amazingly She Walks in Beauty is such a poem that has no space for wit or satire or witty sarcasm. It is typically characterized by a splendid description of the beauty of a woman and appreciation for it. This might have frustrated Pope beyond measure.

In most of the cases Alexander Pope, as revealed by his works including the poems and the criticisms, was deeply involved with the social issues, especially the social snobbery and hypocrisy that characterized the eighteenth century society. He, therefore, might have been quite amazed as well as frustrated out of the fact that some poet is wasting his talent by trying to analyze if “One shade the more, one ray the less,/ Had half impair’d the nameless grace” of the lady.

She Walks in Beauty clearly appears to have reflected the Platonic concept of beauty. It harbors the idea that the external beauty is the reflection of the inner goodness and the mental purity of a person. There is much doubt if Pope would have appreciated this, considering the practical and satiric attitude that he had and projected through almost all his literary works. The way he has satirized the 18^th century ladies in The Rape of the Lock for their spending so much of time before the mirror, it can be apprehended that Pope might have felt disgusted with a poet watching a woman minutely enough to notice the ‘soft’ ‘cheek’, ‘calm’ ‘brow’ and the ‘tints that glow’.

Isn’t there, then, anything in Byron’s She Walks in Beauty that Pope would have liked and appreciated? One who can say “To err is human, to forgive, divine” (Alexander Pope, Ibid) might have excused Byron for his error, as he might have thought. Again, who can say if Pope might have been too happy with Byron to find the minuteness with which he observed the lady and could describe her beauty with the subtlest details, applying his own poetic and philosophic insight? It is to be kept in mind that the Pope’s appreciation would not have been inspired by the description of the beauty but by the fact that Byron has observed a human being, since in his Essay on Man he himself said, “The proper study of mankind is man”.

There are, of course, other reasons for which Pope would have loved Byron’s She Walks in Beauty. One of the principal reasons is the clarity with which the beauty of the lady has been described. Pope advocated ‘wit’ saying, “True wit is nature to advantage dress’d; / What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed”. It gives a clear indication that thought being perfectly and expressed through words was the objective for while ‘wit’ was the instrument to attain the goal. Had he found Byron expressing his thoughts ‘so well’ he just could not but have showered appreciation.

What is to be marked specially is the fact that type of imagery that Byron has used in She Walks in Beauty, perfectly matches with the romantic tone and theme of the poem. The diction is also characterized by a certain degree of tenderness that is quite prevalent in the mood of the poem, resulting in the coherence among diction, mood and tone being maintained. Even the dominance of Iambic Tetrameter offers the perfect rhythm for the poem, considering its lyric feature. The ‘ababab’ rhyme scheme seems to echo the simplicity as well as musicality that are the major characteristics of this poem. Pope could not have helped appreciated this poem for all these reasons since he himself had treated all these factors with due care and, of course, perfection. Pope’s act of using epic similes and the epic tone along with the Heroic Couplet in The Rape of the Lock in order to add to the sense of mockery can be cited for instance.