Her Eyes by Edwin Arlington Robinson
A celebrated painter, long confined to a still room above the passing street, endures years of struggle until his work wins praise throughout the world. Yet triumph does not satisfy him. He returns to the room where his earlier dream had been buried and, seized by a passionate impulse, paints a beautiful and perilous figure combining angel and maiden. Her eyes at first seem incomplete, but he finally creates them with a vision of both heavenly purity and human darkness. He worships the painted woman as his wife and guide to all that has been and is, while her eyes gradually make him understand the love that has punished him after his long suffering.
By Edwin Arlington Robinson · First published 1897 · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Psychological Poetry, Symbolist Poetry · 395 words
First lines
UP from the street and the crowds that went, / Morning and midnight, to and fro, / Still was the room where his days he spent, / And the stars were bleak, and the nights were slow.
Year after year, with his dream shut fast,
What this Textopian page supports
Her Eyes is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson, dated 1897 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edwin Arlington Robinson
- Date: 1897 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Psychological Poetry, Symbolist Poetry, Gothic Poetry, Tragic Poetry
- Length: 395 words
- Structure: 1 section, 26 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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- Work identity for Her Eyes by Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Genres
- Narrative Poetry — The poem tells a complete, chronological story of an artist's lifelong striving, fame, isolation, creation of a portrait, and final recognition of its personal meaning.
- Psychological Poetry — Its central conflict is inward: the artist's obsessive dream, emotional deprivation, suppressed desire, and gradual confrontation with his own past are expressed through the painting's eyes.
- Symbolist Poetry — The painted woman and especially her eyes function as symbols of memory, desire, conscience, spiritual judgment, and the artist's unresolved emotional life.
- Gothic Poetry — The bleak room, slow nights, death imagery, haunted portrait, ambiguous angelic and demonic qualities, and the artist's quasi-supernatural relationship with his creation give the poem a Gothic atmosphere.
Tags
poetry · lyric poem · American literature · modern poetry · love · beauty · memory · longing · admiration · melancholy · romanticism · introspection