Do not be Lured into Paradise!

This is a great poem from home-schooled Indonesian poetess,Bibsy Soenharjo. Let us interpret and appreciate it.

He Had Such Quiet Eyes

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 she'd been wise
And had listened to the advice
Never to compromise
With pleasure-seeking 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 be losing at dice
Though you may lose your heart once or twice

We can approach the appreciation of this poem from two levels.

On the first level, on reading this poem, we are confronted by strong seductive language. We are confronted by the seductive nature of lustful love and its basic emotions. We shall not delve on that.

On the second level, we shall interpret the universal values of the poem as it explores the weakness and pitfalls of life for young ladies when they are accosted by men after their youth and bodies.

The poem focuses on the eyes of a man-the window to his soul. How alluring, seductive, dangerous yet quietly imploring are they. The poetess then likened the eyes symbolically,akin the the thinnest ice on a lake in winter. The beauty of the eyes of the man may beckon and you may weaken,but beware,it may be a trap that you will never get out from.Once you get into his trap of thin ice,it will crack and you will go under. By his ruthless nature, he gets what he wants and then leaves you at your own loss, being fooled by your very own feeble nature for a thing that you may physically adore.

So the poetess advises young ladies not to be gullible-to wise up and avoid pleasure-seeking guys and to never be caught in a compromising position which they will eternally regret.

The poetess advises that ladies can be nice to a charming gentleman but they are to keep a distance in space and time until they are more assured that these wooers have gracious thoughts. In parting, Bibsy counsels that the ladies may lose at 'false' love a few times but they should never lose in life when they found that special someone who truly loves them.