Table of Contents
Introduction
In this article, we will discuss the poem The Night has a Thousand Eyes by Francis William Bourdillon. It is a short poem having two stanzas which consist of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme o the poem is abab. The poet uses personification to make people know the importance of love in life.
Stanza 1
The poet begins the poem with the words ‘The night has a thousand eyes’ meaning that the night is full of stars which keep blinking like eyes. Thus stars are personified as eyes. In the next line, he continues ‘and the day but one’. The one refers to the sun which is the only eye of the day.
However, according to the poet, the light of the bright world dies with the dying sun, i.e. as the sun sets (dies), the whole world gets dark and loses its brightness. In other words, the world dies without the sun.
The poet wants to says that thousands of stars which keep blinking in the night cannot brighten the world while a single sun brightens it and keeps it shining. Thus the sun is a vital part of the earth.
Stanza 2
In stanza 2, the poet uses the same lines and changes from night to mind & day to the heart. According to the poet, the mind has a thousand eyes and the heart but one meaning that the mind keeps occupied with all kinds of ideas that keep coming (blinking) in his mind. It keeps storing all kind of information that comes in it. It has ample functions to perform.
However, the heart has just one eye i.e. the love. And without love the life becomes useless. Neither the mind can function properly nor the body. Hence, like the sun, the heart is the fundamental and most important part of our body as it imparts love on which the whole body depends.
Thus using personification, the poet draws the attention of the reader towards the importance of love and loved ones in life.
