The Eyes Have It

 The Eyes Have It


          Why is it that one can look at a lion, or a planet, or an owl, or at someone’s finger as long 

          as one pleases, but looking into the eyes of another person is, if prolonged past a second,

          a perilous affair?                                                                

                                                                                                    Walker Percy, Writer (1916-1990)


I have an answer. The eyes tell all. They are a window to the way a person really feels about their present situation, and/or the person in front of them. And people have a varying degree of openness to having their inner feelings observed in this way. Be that as it may, there are hundreds of descriptors for this optical window, through which a person can see out, and others can see in. So the English language, in many ways, has recognized that eyes express what lies within, despite the reluctance to engage in Percy’s “perilous affair.”


What do the eyes tell?


Eyes narrowed, wide open, averted,  demure, 

Smiling,  smoldering,  tearful, with allure. 

Eyes astounded, rounded,  accusing,  sly,

Adoring,  imploring,  angered,  shy. 

Eyes amused,  amazed,  outraged,  ablaze,

Contemptuous,  critical,  craving,  crazed.

Eyes enthralled,  enchanted,  dewy,  downcast,

Fearful,  flinty,  flirty,  fathomless. 

Eyes honest, furtive, fiery, of frost,

Hooded,  haunted, anxious, while seeing a ghost.

Eyes misty,  mysterious,  hypnotic,  morose,

Mournful,  mischievous,  moody, going closed.

Eyes leering,  livid,  longing, lucent,

Jaded,  joyous,  innocent,  insolent.

Eyes gloating,  glowering,  riveting,  rueful,

Winking,  wincing,  wild,  wistful.

Eyes heart-broken, horrified,  piercing,  pleading,

Prying,  puzzled,  pitying,  pleasing.

Eyes brooding,  bewildered,  bewitching,  bemused,

Beseeching,  beaming,  blackened,  bruised.

Eyes covetous,  cunning,  deceiving, dreary,

Disdainful,  defiant,  dramatic,  dreamy.

Eyes seductive, scowling,  sinister,  sprightly,

Sullen,  stormy,  suspicious,  shifty.

Eyes tender,  touching,  tranquil,  tired,

Tremulous,  transparent,  tempestuous,  afire.

Eyes wandering,  wondering,  watchful,  wary,

Weeping,  wicked,  worried,  weary.

Eyes honest,  soul-telling, hidden feelings they do own,

Frisky, even risky, they take a life of their own. 


  


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