Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-11-14

brown and indescribably soft and win
ming. Elsewhere we find it asserted that
mo finer eyes ever appeared IN the literary
circles of Great Britain since Burns time
than those of Hawthorne. y
| David Gray's were Large and lustrous, .
and Dante Rossetti's ''grey-blue, clear and
piercing, and characterized by that rapid,
penetrating gaze so noticeable IN Elmer
son.
Shelley's eyes are always spoken of as
magnificent, and fully indicative of his
hayward genius. One writer describes
them as large and animated, with dash
of wildness in them;" another speaks of
them as ''such pair of eyes are rarely
seen in human or any other head, in
tensely blue, with a gentle and lambent
expression, yet wonderfully alert and en-
crossing. Medwith, while writing of
Shelley's appearance, refers to his blue
eyes, Every large and prominent. They
were at times, when he was distracted, as
he often was In contemplation, dull and,
as it were insensible to external objects;
at others, they flashed with the fire of in
telligence. = Tom Moore's eyes were las
dark and fine as you would wish to see I'M
der set of vine leaves.
OF Coleridge it is reported: His fore
head was prodigiOus-a great piece of
placid maIble and his fine eyes, In which
all the activity of his mind seemed to con-
centrate, moved under it with sprightly
ease, as if it were pastime for them to
carry all that thought. Another friend of
his writes: The upper part of COleridge's
face was excessively fine. His eyes were
large, light grey, prominent, and OF liquid
briliancy. which some eyes of fine char
,-i,- I
the orb itself retreated to the innermost
recess of the brain In his Life of
Sterling" Carlyle introduces his famous
description Of Coleridge's appearance:
1.-The deep eyes, of a light hazel, were,
he says, ''as full of sorrow as of inspira-
ton; confused pain looked mildly from
them, as In a kind of mild assonishment. .
The eyes of Keats were described by one
of his contemporaries as mellow and
glowing: large. dark and sensitive" Cow
den Clarke states that they were of a brown
color, or dark hazel, thus contradicting
Mrs. Proctor assertion that they were
blue.
The finest eyes, in every sense of the
word, which | have seen IN a man head
land have seen many fine Ones) are those
Of Thomas Carlyle" Such is the testi-
mony Of Leigh Hunt. In a description of
the Chelsea Sage as a lecturer at Willis
Rooms, we find the following: There he
stood, rugged of feature, brow abrupt like
low cliff, craggy over eyes deep-set, large,
piercing, between blue and dark grey, full
of rolling fire. -
Leigh Hunt in his Autobiography,
speaking of Wordsworth appearance,
says: 4 never beheld eyes that looked so
inspired or supernatural. They were like
fires half burning, half smoldering, with
sort of acid fixture of regard, and seated at
the farther end of two caverns. One might
imagine Ezekiel or Isaiah to have had
such eyes
Walter Scott said of Burns: There was
strong expression of sense and shrewd-
ness in all his lineaments; the eye alone,
think, indicated the poetical character and
temperament. 1t was large and of a cast
which glowed Il say literally glowed)
when he spoke with feeling or interest, |
never saw such another eye in a human
head, though have seen the most distin-
ouiShed men of nv time -