Famous Eyes Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Eyes poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous eyes poems. These examples illustrate what a famous eyes poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Eyes And Tears

by Andrew Marvell
 How wisely Nature did decree,
With the same Eyes to weep and see!
That, having view'd the object vain,
They might be ready to complain.

And since the Self-deluding Sight,
In a false Angle takes each hight;
These Tears which better measure all,
Like wat'ry Lines and Plummets fall.

Two Tears, which Sorrow long did weigh
Within the Scales of either Eye,
And then paid out in equal Poise,
Are...Read more of this...

The Fury Of Hating Eyes

by Anne Sexton
 I would like to bury 
all the hating eyes 
under the sand somewhere off 
the North Atlantic and suffocate 
them with the awful sand 
and put all their colors to sleep 
in that soft smother. 
Take the brown eyes of my father, 
those gun shots, those mean muds. 
Bury them. 
Take the blue eyes of my mother, 
naked as...Read more of this...

Eyes that o'er the landscape fly

by Hafez
Eyes that o’er the landscape fly,
Over dale & wood & stream
To the cloud-realms of the sky;

Eyes that wander still & dream,
Hopes that ever forward press
Seeking lovelier loveliness;

All the world is yours to roam
—Searching eye & swiftling thought—
Nowhere can ye make your home;

Not where peace so vainly sought
Bower’d in the valley lies,
Nor content’s small villages;

Nor can pleasure’s garish dress
Tempt you to...Read more of this...

Look not in my eyes for fear

by A E Housman
 Look not in my eyes, for fear 
Thy mirror true the sight I see, 
And there you find your face too clear 
And love it and be lost like me. 
One the long nights through must lie 
Spent in star-defeated sighs, 
But why should you as well as I 
Perish? gaze not in my eyes. 

A Grecian lad, as...Read more of this...

O turn away those roguish eyes of thine!

by Omar Khayyam
O turn away those roguish eyes of thine!
Be still! seek not my peace to undermine!
Thou say'st, «Look not.» I might as well essay
To slant my goblet, and not spill my wine....Read more of this...

Sonnet 132: Thine eyes I love and they as pitying me

by William Shakespeare
 Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black, and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even
Doth half that glory to the sober west
As those two...Read more of this...

A Twinkle in Her Eyes

by Majeed Amjad
Who can say

Why her eyes,

Those playmates of the hamlet where Beauty dwells,

Why her eyes smile that way ?

 

When notes arising from her soul,

That Temple-Palace of Music,

And traipsing through the land of glad tidings,

Mirthfully smothering the tinkling of their anklets,

Tip toe up, haltingly, secretively,

To the gates of her lips,

Why her gaze sparkles and smiles ?

 

Leaping over islands of silence

And...Read more of this...

"Golden Eyes"

by Adela Florence Cory Nicolson
   Oh Amber Eyes, oh Golden Eyes!
     Oh Eyes so softly gay!
   Wherein swift fancies fall and rise,
     Grow dark and fade away.
   Eyes like a little limpid pool
     That holds a sunset sky,
   While on its surface, calm and...Read more of this...

Sonnet XLIII: Why Should Your Fair Eyes

by Michael Drayton
 Why should your fair eyes with such sovereign grace 
Disperse their rays on every vulgar spirit, 
Whilst I in darkness, in the self-same place, 
Get not one glance to recompense my merit? 
So doth the plowman gaze the wand'ring star, 
And only rest contented with the light, 
That never learn'd what constellations are 
Beyond the bent of his unknowing...Read more of this...

Sonnet 130: My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun

by William Shakespeare
 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks,
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath...Read more of this...

When you have closed my eyes to the light

by Emile Verhaeren
When you have closed my eyes to the light, kiss them with a long kiss, for they will have given you in the last look of their last fervour the utmost passionate love.
Beneath the still radiance of the funeral torch, bend down towards the farewell in them your sad and beautiful face, so that the only image they will keep...Read more of this...

My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)

by William Shakespeare
 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath...Read more of this...

Let Thine Eyes Whisper

by Ameen Rihani
Grieve not, for I am near thee;
Sigh not, for I can hear thee;
Wash from thy heart all memory of past wrong;
Doubt not that doubts besmear thee;
Speak not, for I do fear thee;
Let thine eyes whisper love’s conciling song....Read more of this...

The heart, like tapers, takes at beauty's eyes

by Omar Khayyam
The heart, like tapers, takes at beauty's eyes
A flame, and lives by that whereby it dies;
And beauty is a flame where hearts, like moths,
Offer themselves a burning sacrifice....Read more of this...

Upon Her Eyes

by Robert Herrick
 Clear are her eyes,
Like purest skies;
Discovering from thence
A baby there
That turns each sphere,
Like an Intelligence....Read more of this...

When in disgrace with fortune and mens eyes (Sonnet 29)

by William Shakespeare
 When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts...Read more of this...

Sonnet 137: Thou blind fool Love what dost thou to mine eyes

by William Shakespeare
 Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes
That they behold and see not what they see?
They know what beauty is, see where it lies,
Yet what the best is, take the worst to be.
If eyes corrupt by overpartial looks,
Be anchored in the bay where all men ride,
Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forgèd hooks,
Whereto the judgment of my...Read more of this...

Lo! In Thine Honest Eyes I Read

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 LO! in thine honest eyes I read
The auspicious beacon that shall lead,
After long sailing in deep seas,
To quiet havens in June ease.

Thy voice sings like an inland bird
First by the seaworn sailor heard;
And like road sheltered from life's sea
Thine honest heart is unto me....Read more of this...

Dust in the Eyes

by Robert Frost
 If, as they say, some dust thrown in my eyes
Will keep my talk from getting overwise,
I'm not the one for putting off the proof.
Let it be overwhelming, off a roof
And round a corner, blizzard snow for dust,
And blind me to a standstill if it must....Read more of this...

Sonnet CXXX: My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun

by William Shakespeare
  My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the...Read more of this...

So the Eyes accost -- and sunder

by Emily Dickinson
 So the Eyes accost -- and sunder
In an Audience --
Stamped -- occasionally -- forever --
So may Countenance

Entertain -- without addressing
Countenance of One
In a Neighboring Horizon --
Gone -- as soon as known --...Read more of this...

The Gardener XVI: Hands Cling to Eyes

by Rabindranath Tagore
 Hands cling to hands and eyes linger
on eyes: thus begins the record of our
hearts.
It is the moonlit night of March;
the sweet smell of henna is in the air;
my flute lies on the earth neglected 
and your garland of flowers is
unfinished.
This love between you and me is
simple as a song.
Your veil of the saffron colour
makes my eyes drunk.
The jasmine wreath...Read more of this...

Sonnet 148: O me! what eyes hath love put in my head

by William Shakespeare
 O me! what eyes hath love put in my head,
Which have no correspondence with true sight!
Or, if they have, where is my judgment fled,
That censures falsely what they see aright?
If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote,
What means the world to say it is not so?
If it be not, then love doth well denote
Love's eye is not so...Read more of this...

On Looking Into The Eyes Of A Demon Lover

by Sylvia Plath
 Here are two pupils
whose moons of black
transform to cripples
all who look:

each lovely lady
who peers inside
take on the body
of a toad.

Within these mirrors
the world inverts:
the fond admirer's
burning darts

turn back to injure
the thrusting hand
and inflame to danger
the scarlet wound.

I sought my image
in the scorching glass,
for what fire could damage
a witch's face?

So I stared in that furnace
where beauties char
but found radiant Venus
reflected...Read more of this...

Sonnet 43: When most I wink then do mine eyes best see

by William Shakespeare
 When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form, form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy...Read more of this...

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