Lynn E. O'Connacht (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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poetree2011-12-01 10:12 pm
lynnoconnacht) wrote in poetree2011-12-01 10:12 pm
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Poem: She Walks in Beauty
Picking poetry to share is hard, especially when you're sharing someone else's. So, this week's totally unofficial theme is The Romantic Period!
Today's poem is a fairly well-known one by Byron. Byron is one of the main late Romantic poets along with Percy Byssche Shelley and John Keats. She Walks in Beauty is actually one of Byron's most well-known poems. (It also happens to be one of my favourites and one of the few poems I can reliably quote from.)
One of the potentially lesser known facts about this particular poem is that it's been set to music at least twice. Once during Byron's own lifetime in the book Hebrew Melodies, which it was (or at least appears to have been) originally composed for. It was also used in the 2004 movie adaptation of Vanity Fair, where the song is performed by Sissel Kyrkjebø and composed by Mychael Danna.
Once upon a time, I found a link to what I was certainly led to believe was a rendition of the original score, but I can't find that anymore. Instead, have this link to the arrangement used in the 2004 film if you're interested in hearing it. ^_^
Enjoy!
She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that 's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
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!
~ by George Gordon Byron
~ quoted from The Poetical Works of Lord Byron
Today's poem is a fairly well-known one by Byron. Byron is one of the main late Romantic poets along with Percy Byssche Shelley and John Keats. She Walks in Beauty is actually one of Byron's most well-known poems. (It also happens to be one of my favourites and one of the few poems I can reliably quote from.)
One of the potentially lesser known facts about this particular poem is that it's been set to music at least twice. Once during Byron's own lifetime in the book Hebrew Melodies, which it was (or at least appears to have been) originally composed for. It was also used in the 2004 movie adaptation of Vanity Fair, where the song is performed by Sissel Kyrkjebø and composed by Mychael Danna.
Once upon a time, I found a link to what I was certainly led to believe was a rendition of the original score, but I can't find that anymore. Instead, have this link to the arrangement used in the 2004 film if you're interested in hearing it. ^_^
Enjoy!
She Walks in Beauty
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that 's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
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!
~ by George Gordon Byron
~ quoted from The Poetical Works of Lord Byron