He Had Such Quiet Eyes by:

Bibsy Soenharjo

❶Poem
He had such quiet eyes
She did not realise
They were two pools of lies Meaning of the words
Layered with thinnest ice 1
Unhappy; uninhabited
To her, those quiet eyes 2
Make an earnest; formal request
3
Present; show
Were breathing desolate1 sighs 4
Settlement reached by making
Imploring2 her to be nice 5
concessions on each side
Looking for a feeling of happy
And to render3 him paradise satisfaction

If only she’d been wise

And had listened to the advice
Never to compromise4
With pleasure-seeking5 guys
She’d be free from “the hows and whys”

Now here’s a bit of advice

Be sure that nice really means nice
Then you’ll never losing at dice
Though you may lose your heart once or twice

1968

©Copyright: Raff Sayn, Lee Teng, Xin Pei, Shu Ling, Nicole, Yvonne, Chu Pauh, Ruvithira
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He Had Such Quiet Eyes by:
Bibsy Soenharjo
❷About the Poet
Bibsy Soenharjo was born in Jakarta on 22 November 1928, to
Haji Agus Salim and Zainatun Nahar nee Almatsier. Her father
was one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Indonesia.
Bibsy was exposed to poets like Edgar Allan Poe, Matthew
Arnold and William Butler Yeast at a young age. She was fond
of literature and after returning home from a four-year stay in
Japan, she began writing her first prose in 1957, and then
poetry in the sixties. The Literature Review, an international
quarterly published by Fairleigh Dickinson University in New
Jersey, USA, published her first four literature pieces in their
Autumn and Spring Editions in 1967 and 1968 respectively.
Her poems have appeared in bilingual anthologies, with her
Indonesian works translated into English, Dutch, and Japanese
and her English poems into Indonesian and Dutch. She
continued to write proses pieces in Indonesian that appeared in
Jakarta dailies under the pen name Nusapati.
In 1998, her sons and friends published a book on some of
her poems to celebrate her 70th birthday.

❸Synopsis
The poem is seen through the eyes of the poet who describes
a situation whereby the persona, probably a young lady, who is
captivated by the quiet eyes of a young man. The lady believes
she sees in those eyes mirroring the sadness within him and
begging her for love and kindness so as to give him
happiness.
The second stanza reveals that the lady was not wise enough
to listen to the advice of never to be on good terms of those
who only seek fun and pleasure. As a result, she gets entangled
in a difficult situation where numerous questions cannot be
answered.
The poet ends up in the third stanza with a bit further advice;
that is, one should be extra certain that a nice-looking person is

©Copyright: Raff Sayn, Lee Teng, Xin Pei, Shu Ling, Nicole, Yvonne, Chu Pauh, Ruvithira
1
He Had Such Quiet Eyes by:
Bibsy Soenharjo
also one who possesses a decent character. This is to ensure
that one does not lose at the game of chance i.e. the game of
life; though losing out one’s heart (love) once or twice is
understandable.

❹ Analysis of the Poem

i) Background
The poem is about a persona, a lady who fell for the wrong
man. She was fascinated with his ‘quiet eyes’ and
believed that his eyes showed his true emotion and
feelings for her. The man’s eyes had the power to charm
her and made her believe him and be nice to him.
However, the man was actually a ‘pleasure seeking man’,
a flirt. As the lady was truly fascinated and charmed by
the man, she did not listen or did not want to listen to any
advice concerning the man’s true behaviour. In the end,
she realized her error and was broken hearted.
ii) Description of Stanza
Stanza 1
He had such quiet eyes
She did not realise
They were two pools of lies
Layered with thinnest ice
To her, those quiet eyes
Were breathing desolate sighs
Imploring her to be nice
And to render him paradise

He had such calm and innocent eyes that she did not realise
those eyes were eyes of deceit covered in a thin veil that is
easy to see through or fathom. To her, those eyes were pouring
out sighs of sadness begging her to be kind and loving and in
being so grant him a state of happiness.

Stanza 2
If only she’d been wise
And had listened to the advice

©Copyright: Raff Sayn, Lee Teng, Xin Pei, Shu Ling, Nicole, Yvonne, Chu Pauh, Ruvithira
1
He Had Such Quiet Eyes by:
Bibsy Soenharjo
Never to compromise
With pleasure-seeking guys
She’d be free from “the hows and whys”

Regrettably she had not been wise enough to listen to the

advice of never to be on terms with those who only look for
pleasure. If only she had, she would have been saved from
being trapped in an unpleasant situation that is difficult to
come out of.

Stanza 3
Now here’s a bit of advice
Be sure that nice really means nice
Then you’ll never be losing at dice
Though you may lose your heart once or twice

She proceeded in giving some advice. Be sure to mean what we

say. Then we will never lose at the cheating game though we
may once or twice suffer from a broken heart. One may fall in
love more than once before one discovers true love.

❺Setting
No particular place or time is mentioned but the poem relates a
situation that can happen to anyone passing through the
adolescent stage of life when physical impressions and
attraction are at their highest. The eyes can reveal many things
about a person’s inner feeling and emotions. They are the
window to a person’s soul. The adolescent’s perception of such
feelings is heightened at this stage.

❻Persona
The third person point of poem is used when the poem uses the
pronouns ‘he’ and ‘she’. The persona (she) is quite fascinated
by those calm, innocent eyes that seem to be begging to her to

©Copyright: Raff Sayn, Lee Teng, Xin Pei, Shu Ling, Nicole, Yvonne, Chu Pauh, Ruvithira
1
He Had Such Quiet Eyes by:
Bibsy Soenharjo
be loving and kind so as to grant him as state of bliss. But in
those eyes, there is deceit.

❼Tone and Mood

The tone is one of giving advice. Here we can feel the poet
giving advice to someone who may be near and dear to her.
The advice is never to come to terms with pleasure-seeking
guys. In the poem the person is not wise enough to follow the
advice and is now entangled in a difficult situation. She then
adds another advice; if you do not want to lose at a game a
chance, be certain of what you mean by nice.

❽Structure, Style and Language

The poem is written in three stanzas. The first stanza has eight
lines, the second stanza has five lines and the third stanza has
four lines. The rhyming is not particularly effective as in ‘lies’
rhyming with ‘ice’, or ‘eyes’ rhyming with ‘sighs’ in stanza one
while in the third stanza, all the word end in ‘-ice’

❾Literary Devices
i) Imagery
Example: ‘pools of lies’, ‘layered in thinnest ice’
ii) Symbolisms
The poet uses a number of symbolisms to enhance the quality
of her work.
Some of these are: ‘quiet eyes’, ‘dice’
iii) Alliteration
Example: ‘lies layered’
iv) Personification
The eyes were ‘breathing the desolate sighs’ as though he was
talking charmingly to her.

©Copyright: Raff Sayn, Lee Teng, Xin Pei, Shu Ling, Nicole, Yvonne, Chu Pauh, Ruvithira
1
He Had Such Quiet Eyes by:
Bibsy Soenharjo

❿Themes
i) Betrayal of love
ii) Personal experiences
iii) Relationships that are meaningful

⓫Lesson Learnt
i) We must be careful when choosing friends
ii) Falling in love is normal but one should be careful
iii) We must learn from the experience of other people
⓬Moral Values
i) Avoid being deluded by looks or appearance
• We sometimes encounter people who have ill intentions
towards us. These are con men who prey on young
women. They look nice and decent but have bad
motives. So we should take precaution against them.
We should not judge a book by its cover
ii) Listen to beneficial advice
• We are given good advice when others feel that we
need it. We should listen to their advice. The advice is
for our own good. It prevents us from getting hurt or
getting into trouble.

©Copyright: Raff Sayn, Lee Teng, Xin Pei, Shu Ling, Nicole, Yvonne, Chu Pauh, Ruvithira
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