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!
Manfred
- Manfred is a Faustian noble living in the Bernese Alps.
- Tortured by some mysterious guilt which has to do with the death of his beloved Astarte
- Uses his mastery of language and spell-casting to summon seven spirits from whom he seeks forgetfulness.
- However, they cannot help Manfred and fate prevents him from suicide.
- In the end, Manfred dies defying religious temptations of redemption from sin.
Mandred: The lamp must be replenish'd, but even then
It will not burn so long as I must watch.
My slumbers-- if I slumber-- are not sleep,
But a continuance of enduring thought,
Which then I can resist not: in my heart
There is a vigil, and these eyes but close
To look within; and yet I live, and bear
The aspect and the form of breathing men.
But grief should be the instructor of the wise;
Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most
Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth,
The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.
Philosophy and science, and the springs
Of wonder, and the wisdom of the world,
I have essay'd, and in my mind there is
A power to make these subject to itself--
But they avail not: I have done men good,
And I have met with good even among men--
But this avail'd not: I have had my foes,
And none have baffled, many fallen before me--
But this avail'd not: Good, or evil, life,
Powers, passions, all I see in other beings,
Have been to me as rain unto the sands,
Since that all-nameless hour. I have no dread,
And feel the curse to have no natural fear
Nor fluttering throb, that beats with hopes or wishes
Or lurking love of something on the earth.
Now to my task.--
Childe Harold's Pilgrimages
- main character is a dark brooding man who doesn't like society and wants to escape from the world because of his discontent with it
- deals with the underdog and military might
- has four cantos written in Spenserian stanzas
Byronic Hero
- being a rebel
- having a distaste for social institutions
- being an exile
- expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege
- having great talent
- hiding an unsavory past
- being highly passionate
- being self-destructive
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