Dear Bartleby.com,
Have you heard of the Bartleby website? I almost forgot about it. Since I gave up many of my books during my last move, I sacrificed most of my classics. I departed with the works I thought I would never reference again or one’s I knew I could easily replace. (Among them Dostoyevsky, Goethe, Maupassant, Melville, … to name a few. Sigh, I miss the smell of those stinky books.) I digress.
Today I thought of a Byron phrase I desperately wanted to recall. But to my chagrin, I apparently rid myself of his works as well. It drove me up the wall … UNTIL I recalled: http://www.bartleby.com/
Sigh, I love Byron…
I found it: “And all that’s best of dark and bright, Meets in her aspect and her eyes”
Now that said, I know it is not the only source but I like the way Bartleby.com is set up. Check it out if you wish. If you know of any such source that is better, please let me know.
Here is the phrase in context of the complete poem:
Lord Byron
CLXXIII. “She walks in beauty, like the night”
SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meets 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.
