adjectival poets

It seems that April is also Love Your Body Month - or so, at least, a number of glossy posters in the Smith Campus Center tell me. I am of the opinion that every month should be Love Your Body Month (and National Poetry Month, for that matter), but perhaps if we all love our bodies for the entire month of April, something about that will stick around for the rest of the year. I very nearly posted another e.e. cummings poem - "I like my body when it is with your body" - but I was feeling too Byronic.

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 thought 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!

~George Gordon, Lord Byron, She walks in beauty, 1814

I'm not sure that She walks in beauty really sends the right sort of Love Your Body message, but it's still a nice way to read the poem. I'm also very fond of it, in an "Oh that wacky Byron" sort of way. And I would like to point out that, feeling Byronic as I was, I still managed not to post Darkness. I was tempted, but I couldn't quite deal with the end of the world today. (Also, how cool is it that Byron is an adjective? Seriously.)