There be None of Beauty’s Daughters Or Stanzas for Music by Lord Byron (Poem, Summary & Analysis)

 

There be None of Beauty’s Daughters

Or

Stanzas for Music

by Lord Byron

(Poem, Summary & Analysis) 

 

George Gordon Byron (called Lord Byron), John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley belong to the second generation of Romantic Poets. These three writers offer many points of close resemblance.

Byron was born on the eve of the French Revolution and Shelley and Keats were born shortly after that. The situation in England was one of unrest. Agricultural England was giving way to Industrial England. Revolutionary ideas generated by the French Revolution were passionately accepted by some and denounced by others. Political unrest was prevalent in the whole of Europe. Liberalism was advocated. The middle class began to have a realistic outlook. Literature reflected the intensity of the period and the works of these writers were in a sense representative of the times.

The Lake Poets (William Wordsworth, S.T. Coleridge and Robert Southey) were called the first generation of Romantic Poets. If they set the trend of poetry writing in England, the second generation of poets carried it further. Keats, Shelley and Byron freed poetry from all its restraints. They formed a group by themselves. Byron crossed the boundaries of his country and conquered Europe with his fiery imagination. Keats and Shelley also won name and fame in the continent.

The period after the French Revolution is called the post-Revolutionary era. Byron was the most articulate voice of this era. He expressed the spirit of the age along with Keats and Shelley. The other well-known writer was Sir Walter Scott. Scott was an immensely learned man: he had translated works of Goethe and some German ballads. Scottish history often finds place in his works. His characters are often shaped by the environment they are in.

About the Author

Lord Byron was born in 1788 in London. His first collection of poems, ‘Hours of Idleness’ was published in 1807. This work was bitterly criticized and this provoked Byron into writing English Bards and Scotch Reviewers in 1809. He wrote a number of poems and a couple of dramas.

Byron’s first successful literary production was Childe Harold published in two cantos in 1812. In 1813 The Bride of Abydos and The Giaour were published. In 1814 he wrote two other literary pieces The Corsair and Lara. In 1815 Hebrew Melodies appeared. In 1816 Byron and his wife were separated and Byron went to Geneva where he stayed with Shelley.

Byron had a number of affairs with women. Therefore, his poetry was condemned on moral grounds. “Byron was unique among Romantic poets in that he respected the neoclassical poets and sought to some degree, to emulate them. Byron used diverse verse structures, but he, like Pope and Dryden, wrote satires about society and other poets.”

There be none of Beauty's daughters

Or

Stanzas for Music

(The Poem)

There be none of Beauty's daughters

With a magic like Thee;

And like music on the waters

Is thy sweet voice to me:

When, as if its sound were causing

The charméd ocean's pausing,

The waves lie still and gleaming,

And the lull'd winds seem dreaming:

 

And the midnight moon is weaving

Her bright chain o'er the deep,

Whose breast is gently heaving

As an infant's asleep:

So the spirit bows before thee

To listen and adore thee;

With a full but soft emotion,

Like the swell of Summer's ocean

Summary

Lord George Gordon Byron came from a noble family, but his childhood days were not happy. He went to Trinity College Cambridge. He published his first collection of poems in 1808. Byron’s relationship with his half-sister (step sister) Augusta Leigh, gave rise to scandal and gossip. It is said that this poem was written by Byron in honour of Augusta’s beauty.

Byron feels that Beauty’s daughters do not have the charm of Augusta. Augusta is very beautiful and Beauty’s daughters do not have the charm that Augusta has. Augusta’s beauty has powers of attracting people to her. Her voice is extremely musical. When water flows, one notices that water creates its own music. Augusta’s voice is as soothing as the music of the waters. The very oceans seem bewitched by the sound of music. Augusta’s voice is extremely musical and one is taken in or hypnotized by her voice. The music of the waters has its own charm, and one can get carried away by it. But in any case, the music of Augusta’s voice and the sound of music of the waters both are very enticing) The very waves of the ocean are calmed down by the musical quality of Augusta’s voice. Even the minds are lulled to sleep on hearing this music. The winds are put to sleep, and in their sleep, the winds are seen to be dreaming.

Since the waves of the ocean are gently moving, it seems that the moonlight falling on the waves is also moving. The light of the moon seems to be weaving a bright chain round the ocean. The moon light seems to have encircled the ocean. As the waves keep rising and falling, it appears that the ocean is breathing. The ocean’s gentle breathing can be compared with the breathing of an infant.

The spirit of the poet and also the spirit of the world bows before the beauty of Augusta. The spirit adores her, worships her and loves to listen to the music of her voice. The heart of the poet is full of tender emotions. Just as the oceans swell due to ice melting, similarly does the heart of the poet swell with soft emotions for his beloved. These emotions are extremely soft and tender.

Analysis

The poem is a love lyric to a woman. There is no physical dimension to the love articulated in the poem. It is famous for its gentle rhythm and the softness of its imagery. The quiet tone of the poem creates a tranquil sense of peace, and the rhythm lulls the reader with its ebb and flow, as if the poem itself has breath of its own. The poem is a clever way of intermingling two of the greatest pleasures in life: love and music. With its gleaming waters, dreaming winds, weaving moon, and heaving breast, it is truly a magical poem.

‘Stanzas for Music’ by Lord Byron is a sixteen-line poem, separated into two sets of eight lines, known as octaves. These octaves are very musical in their arrangement and rhythm. The way the stanzas are further divided into sets of four lines known as quatrains and then into rhyming couplets, evoke a musical quality and might remind a reader of the structure of verses and choruses.

The first stanza follows a rhyme scheme of ABABCCCC. The second stanza changes slightly, rhyming ABABCCDD. Half rhymes are also present within the lines themselves.