<P> It is said to have been inspired by an event in Byron's life; while at a ball, Byron saw Mrs. Anne Beatrix Wilmot, the wife of his cousin, Robert Wilmot . He was struck by her unusual beauty, and the next morning the poem was written . </P> <P> It is thought that she was the first inspiration for his unfinished epic poem about Goethe, a personal hero of his . In this unpublished work, which Byron referred to in his letters as his magnum opus, he switches the gender of Goethe and gives him the same description of his cousin . This idea would have truly put Byron on the avant - garde . </P> <Dl> <Dt> Literature </Dt> </Dl> <P> The first two verses are cited in the novel The Philadelphian by Richard P. Powell . The beginning of the poem is quoted by a character in Arcadia, one of the major plays of Tom Stoppard . The poem is also referenced in a House of Night book, where Nathan, in his reminiscences of Byron, suggests (without any justification) that the subject of the poem may have been Byron's half - sister, Augusta Leigh . </P>

She walks in beauty by lord byron (george gordon)