On Looking Into the Eyes of a Demon Lover
On Looking Into the Eyes of a Demon Lover - meaning Summary
Dangerous Gaze, Unexpected Reflection
The speaker confronts a lover whose eyes act like dangerous mirrors, turning admirers into ruined versions of themselves and reflecting harm back. Expecting to be burned or disfigured by that demonic gaze, the speaker intentionally seeks her own image in it but instead sees "radiant Venus"—a surprising affirmation of beauty or self-worth. The poem maps a tense encounter that subverts anticipated destruction into unexpected self-recognition.
Read Complete AnalysesHere are two pupils whose moons of black transform to cripples all who look: each lovely lady who peers inside take on the body of a toad. Within these mirrors the world inverts: the fond admirer's burning darts turn back to injure the thrusting hand and inflame to danger the scarlet wound. I sought my image in the scorching glass, for what fire could damage a witch's face? So I stared in that furnace where beauties char but found radiant Venus reflected there.
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