He had Such A Quiet Eyes

The poem is about a woman who has been deceived to think that she was loved by a man with 'quiet eyes'. She suffers for this and only learns on hindsight not to trust or give in to the man who seek women only for pleasure. The poet gives an advice on being able to recognize what is true and what is not, when a person is truly friendly and when he is not. You may lose in the game of love ad give your heart away, but knowing the truth of the situation will mean that you will not suffer any lasting losses.

Stanza 1

The woman is taken up with his quiet eyes. The eyes mesmerizes and beg her to 'be nice' to him and make him extremely happy, that is 'render him paradise'. The poet uses a very strong imagery of the eyes 'breathing desolate sighs' to enhance the effect of the eyes on the girl. The woman, being so enamored with those eyes, does not notice he is deceiving. It would not be difficult to see through the man if the woman had her feet on the ground because the eyes have only the 'thinnest ice', easy to break through to learn the man's true nature.

Stanza 2

Something has happened to the woman and she has learnt the truth about the man. The poet suggests that she has learnt the hard way, that is is she learns her lesson through bad experience. She has made a mistake of trusting the man because she has refused to listen to the advice not 'to compromise', that is , lower her standards or expectations in order to please a man who seduces women.

Stanza 3

The poet extends her friendly advice to women to understand what is meant by 'nice', what is means when men are 'nice' to you. When he is 'nice, friendly and pleasant to you, make sure that he is sincere and trustworthy man not because he has ulterior motive, that is he wants something from you in return. The poet further comments that love may be a gamble as suggested in 'dice', you take your chances with someone, you may find true love or you may not. The important issues here is ultimately you have not lost anything because you have not compromised, you are not deceived.