THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES

 

THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES     

The night has a thousand eyes,

And the day but one;

Yet the light of the bright world dies

With the dying sun.

 

The mind has a thousand eyes

And the heart but one;

Yet the light of a whole life dies

When love is done.

 

            This very short poem by the British poet Francis William Bourdillon (22 March 1852 -- !3 January 1921) is quite famous due to the significance of its central idea.

 

The night has a thousand eyes and the day has but one.  The eyes of the night are the stars of the sky.  They emit light when the sky is clear. Against their  large number of a thousand eyes, the day has only one eye ,  the sun.

 

When compared the two, the massive light of one sun is far greater than the combined light of a thousand stars. It means it is the natural capacity of an object which matters, not its physical number.

 

In the second illustration of his idea, Bourdillon compares the mind with the heart, The former has a thousand eyes symbolizing non-vital thoughts  which are totally  outweighed by the single vital idea of  life-sustaining love of the heart.

                                                *******

G.R. Kanwal

27^th September 2023