His Dad died when he was 2 and
his mum was schizophrenic
His nurse sexually abused him
He was bisexual and had many
affairs with both men and women
Allegedly, he wrote it after seeing his cousin's wife at a party in London
It celebrates both the inner and outer beauty of women
The abundance of commas force you to take breaks,
giving your time to imagine the beauty of this woman
It has an abababcdcdcdefefef rhyme scheme. The regular pattern
underscores he timeless beauty and that her beauty does not fluctuate
form feature to feature
The alliteration an sibilance of 'starry skies' is a soft
sound which make her seem graceful. Stars are also
bright, which links to her standing out in a crowd of
people for him
'She' remains a mystery, which could link to him not wanting his cousin to find out, but also so it can be applied to any woman
The iambic tretrameter throughout the poem reflects her
footsteps as she walks or his heartbeat.
The use of a ballad form is to pass down the message of how
beautiful this woman is to forthcoming generations
He never declares love for
her, which is probably
because he had many
affairs, so probably didn't
want anything serious
with her as it was more
so just a lust based on
looks
The exclamation at the end of the poem could symbolise his annoyance that he can't have her
' A heart whose love is innocent', he has probably acknowledged that he can't be with
her as she is too pure and good to have an affair with her husband's cousin
' best of dark and bright', this could symbolise that it it would probably ruin his relationship
with his family, more specifically his cousin, but at the same time he gets to be with this
beautiful woman