HE HAD SUCH QUIET EYES

Bibsy Soenharjo

The Poet
Bibsy Soenharjo was born in Jakarta on 22 November 1928. Bibsy and her siblings were homeschooled and each was encouraged to pursue their own interests. She had a particular fondness for literature and, after returning home from a four-year stay in Japan, Bibsy began writing her first prose in 1957, and then poetry in the 60s. The Literary Review, an international quarterly published by Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, USA, published her first four literary pieces in their Autumn and Spring Editions in 1967 and 1968 respectively. In 1967 also, her poem, Jakarta, March 1967 was published in the Australian magazine Hemisphere, while Setelah Gerhana Bulan (After the Eclipse of the Moon) was published in Gelanggang, an Indonesian cultural magazine now defunct. 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 prose pieces in Indonesian that appeared in Jakarta dailies under the pen name Nuspati. Bibsy Soenharjo now lives in Jakarta with the youngest of her three sons, Haryo, his wife Sutji and their children.

The Poem
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 If only shed been wise And had listened to the advice Never to compromise With pleasure-seeking guys Shed be free from the hows and whys Now heres a bit of advice Be sure that nice really nice Then youll never be losing at dice Though you lose your heart once or twice

SYNOPSIS
In this poem, the poet talks about the betrayal of a young girls feelings for a man. She believes in his sincerity to her as he had pleaded to her to surrender to him. She is taken in by his quiet eyes. If she had listened to advice about men who seek pleasure, she would not be in this situation. The poet advises all young girls to be careful and not be betrayed by men. The poet also 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 and 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 mesmerize and beg her to be nice to him and make him extremely happy, that is render him paradise. The poet uses a very long imagery of the eyes breathing desolate sighs to enhance the effect of the eyes on the girl. The woman, being enamoured with those eyes, does not notice he is deceiving her. 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 mans true nature.

UNDERSTANDING THE POEM [STANZA BY STANZA]

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 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 it means when men are nice to you. When he is nice, friendly and pleasant to you, make sure that he is sincere and trustworthy and 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 issue here is that ultimately you have not lost anything because you have not compromised, you are not deceived.

THE POEM LINE BY LINE STANZA 1 MEANING BY LINE

He had such quiet eyes She did not realise They were two pools of liesLayered with thinnest ice To her, those quiet eyes His eyes were calm and quiet She did not know His eyes were like two pools filled with lies Thinly veiled, like very thin ice To the woman, those calm and quiet eyes

Were breathing desolate sighs

Imploring her to be nice And to render him to paradise

Looked very sad and desolate

The eyes were begging her to be nice to him And to give him happiness and bliss so that he would feel like he was in paradise (heaven)

THE POEM LINE BY LINE STANZA 2 MEANING BY LINE

If only shed been wise
And had listened to the advice

The woman wished she had been wiser in her past actions
And she had listened to the sound advice given to her by people who cared about her

Never to compromise With pleasure-seeking guys

They had advised her not to give up her moral values or principles When she was with men who wanted only pleasure and fun

Shed be free from the hows If she had listened to them, she would and whys not be haunted by questions of hows and whys and the difficult situation she was in.

THE POEM LINE BY LINE STANZA 3 MEANING BY LINE

Now heres a bit of advice

Let me give you a bit of advice

Be sure that nice really means nice

Make sure that the person you think is nice, is truly sincere and trustworthy Then youll never be losing Then, you will not lose in a game of at dice chance or a game of love where you can lose your heart to an undeserving man Though you may lose your Even if you should fall in love and lose heart once or twice your heart to love once or twice

THEMES
(1) Strong Moral Values and Self-Respect The woman in the poem got herself into a difficult situation and was cheated by a man because she gave in to his pleading and his insincere lies. She displayed weakness in her moral standing and lost her self-respect as a result. We should never lower our self-esteem no matter how much we like a man. If a man has respect for the woman he loves, he too would not ask her to do what is morally wrong.

(2) Deception in Appearances The woman is taken in by the mans gentle and quiet eyes. She thinks he is a truthful and trustworthy person. The theme in this poem focuses on deception in appearances. Do not judge a persons character by his appearance. As can be seen in this poem, a gentle and kind-looking man can actually be a wolf in sheeps clothing.

(3) Consequences When we make mistakes in life, we have to live with the consequences. The persona tells us that the woman is haunted with questions of hows and whys. She probably asks herself every day how she could have fallen for his lies; how she could have forgotten the moral values instilled in her by her parents; how she could have ignored all the advice given to her by people who love and care about her. She would probably also wonder why she had not been wiser in her choice of men; why she did not see through his deception and insincerity.

(4) Listen to Advice The poet wants to reach out to all young readers. The woman in the poem wished she had listened to the advice. She poured out her disappointment, frustration and hurt in this poem and wished she had been wise. The poet cautions young readers that they should not be impulsive in their actions and they should, above all, listen to the advice of their elders so that they would not end up like the woman full of regrets.

Moral Values & Lesson Learnt

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. 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.

SETTING The poem is set in the present the world around us now. It highlights the fact that the people around us are not always sincere. They may have ulterior motives towards us. Some have the intention to cheat us. In the case of the woman in the poem, the man only wanted to have sexual pleasure from her. However, she saw him as a man in need of love and consolation. The poem puts forward the need to practise caution when we deal with the people around us. . TONE, MOOD, ATMOSPHERE Refelective Sad and happy Sympathetic

 POINT OF VIEW Second and third person points of view LANGUAGE & STYLE Simple and easy to understand Simple style with rhyming scheme

POETIC DEVICES

Imagery e.g. pools of lies, layered in thinnest ice Metaphor e.g. two pools of lies [emphasises the extent of lies and evokes an image of drowing which suggests a sense of helplessness] at dice [suggests that a love relationship is like a game where you take your chances] Symbol e.g quiet eyes dice Personification e.g The eyes were breathing the desolate sighs as though he was talking charmingly to her [enhance the effect of the lovers gaze]

WATCH THIS VIDEO CLIP

Kiss Because I_m A Girl subtitled version.mp4 ..\..\..\..\Videos\YouTube - Kiss-Because I_m a Girl (english-FULL).mp4

"There's a woman that I love, and even though we can't be together, I still love her video last part man talking

Note down the different type of emotions that were portrayed in the video above. What are the similarities that you can see between the poem you have studied with the video you've just watched? Do you think the man in the video above share similar characteristics as the man described in the poem you have studied? Justify. If you are the man in the video above, would you sacrifice your sight for the one you truly loved? Give reasons for your answers.

EXERCISES
Draw your friends eyes Future spouse Idioms related with eyes Answer this question:
How can you help a friend who fell for a person who you know is a pleasure seeking person? Give a suggestion on how to help this friend.