New
New
Year 10
Eduqas

Understanding 'She Walks in Beauty'

I can explain how Lord Byron presents the speaker's feelings towards the woman in his poem.

New
New
Year 10
Eduqas

Understanding 'She Walks in Beauty'

I can explain how Lord Byron presents the speaker's feelings towards the woman in his poem.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. The poem describes Byron's first sighting of a beautiful woman at a London party.
  2. The speaker initially describes her physical appearance, before speculating about her inner beauty.
  3. Byron was famed for his very public private life, including his many affairs with women.
  4. Byron remains one of the most famous Romantic poets of all time - the poem adheres to Romantic conventions.
  5. The poem barely mentions love, so this could be interpreted as a more surface level attraction.

Common misconception

Students might think that this poem was written from one lover to another.

This poem is about Lord Byron's first encounter with his cousin's wife - as far as we know, he doesn't interact with her or pursue her - he merely observes her beauty from afar.

Keywords

  • Enchanting - delightfully-charming or attractive

  • Awe - a feeling of great wonder and/or admiration

  • Enamoured - to be filled with love for someone or something

  • Romanticism - A literary movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in which poets began to turn their attention towards nature and the interior world of feeling

  • To speculate - to form opinions about something without having the necessary facts or information

Equipment

A copy of the Eduqas poetry anthology.

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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6 Questions

Q1.
If something is 'enchanting' this means...
Correct answer: delightfully-charming or attractive
to be filled with love for someone or something
to have a feeling of great wonder
Q2.
If you describe someone's face you are focusing on their __________ qualities.
emotional
personal
Correct answer: physical
Q3.
What words would we associate with someone described as 'gentle'?
Correct answer: soft
severe
Correct answer: sweet
Q4.
What does it mean to evoke?
Correct answer: to bring to mind or a recollection
to take something away
to deliberately annoy someone
Q5.
Infatuation is:
an extreme dislike of someone
Correct answer: an intense but short-lived passion
a long-term love for someone
Q6.
is the name of the literary movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in which poets turned their attention and awe to the natural world.
Correct Answer: Romanticism

6 Questions

Q1.
Match the keywords with their definitions.
Correct Answer:enchanting ,delightfully-charming or attractive

delightfully-charming or attractive

Correct Answer:awe,a feeling of great wonder and/or admiration

a feeling of great wonder and/or admiration

Correct Answer:Romanticism ,A literary movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

A literary movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries

Correct Answer:speculate ,to form opinions about something without having the necessary facts

to form opinions about something without having the necessary facts

Q2.
Starting with the first, put the summary of 'She Walks in Beauty' in chronological order.
1 - Byron describes the woman's physical beauty.
2 - Byron describes the woman as being gentle.
3 - Byron speculates about the woman's inner beauty.
Q3.
Romanticism was a movement in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. Romantic poets focused on...
Correct answer: using imagery from the natural world
logic prevailing over emotion
Correct answer: a delight in the unspoilt beauty of nature
Q4.
Arguably, 'She Walks in Beauty' shows only a __________ attraction and not love.
momentous
profound
Correct answer: superficial
Q5.
In 'She Walks in Beauty' the speaker feels with the woman he is describing.
Correct Answer: enamoured
Q6.
Byron, writer of 'She Walks in Beauty', was famed for his very private life, including his many affairs with women.
Correct Answer: public