Eyes, Calm Beside Thee (Lady, Couldst Thou Know!
A speaker recalls standing pale and guarded while others openly praised a lady’s beauty. The speaker imagines her concluding that her beauty left this one observer unmoved, unaware that apparently calm eyes may fill with tears.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Sonnet, Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry · 179 words
First lines
Eyes, calm beside thee (Lady, couldst thou know! ) / May turn away thick with fast gathering tears: / I glance not where all gaze: thrilling and low / Their passionate praises reach thee -- my cheek wears / Alone no wonder when thou passest by; / Thy tremulous lids, bent and suffused, reply / To the irrepressible homage which doth glow / On every lip but mine: if in thine ears / Their accents linger -- and thou dost recall / Me as I stood, still, guarded, very pale, / Beside each votarist whose lighted brow / Wore worship like an aureole, "O'er them all / My beauty," thou wilt murmur, "did prevail / Save that one only: " -- Lady, couldst thou know!
_August_ 17, 1834.
What this Textopian page supports
Eyes, Calm Beside Thee (Lady, Couldst Thou Know! ) is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Sonnet, Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry
- Length: 179 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Eyes, Calm Beside Thee (Lady, Couldst Thou Know! ) by Robert Browning
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Genres
- Sonnet — Fourteen rhyming lines develop the contrast between public admiration and the speaker’s concealed response.
- Lyric Poetry — A first-person speaker addresses a lady and expresses emotion through restraint, pallor, and possible tears.
- Love Poetry — The speaker’s hidden feeling for the lady contrasts with the passionate praise voiced by her other admirers.
Tags
concealed emotion · beauty · admiration · tears · sonnet