The shape of your eyes goes round my heart,
A round of dance and sweetness.
Halo of time, cradle nightly and sure
No longer do I know what I've lived,
Your eyes have not always seen me.

Leaves of day and moss of dew,
Reeds of wind and scented smiles,
Wings lighting up the world,
Boats laden with sky and sea,
Hunters of sound and sources of colour,

Scents the echoes of a covey of dawns
Recumbent on the straw of stars,
As the day depends on innocence
The world relies on your pure sight
All my blood courses in its glance.

Basic Set-Up:

This is a complete poem by Paul Éluard.

This is a love poem. The speaker is admiring the shape of his lover's eyes, and those beautiful eyes are giving him a warm, fuzzy feeling. D'awww. Love really is all you need.

The imagery of this poem evokes the peace and contentment we feel when we're in love: "Leaves of day and moss of dew,/ Reeds of wind and scented smiles,/ Wings lighting up the world,/ Boats laden with sky and sea." This imagery of smiles and wings and sky and sea makes us feel good, and it makes us understand what the speaker feels when he looks at the shape of his lover's eyes.

*sniff* Oh, don't mind us. We're just chopping onions over here.

There's tons o' association going on in this passage. The speaker starts by referring to the shape of his lover's eyes, and then he immediately associates it with his heart: "The shape of your eyes goes round my heart."

The images that follow from this first line are associations that the speaker makes when he looks at his lover's eyes. He looks at those beautiful eyes and he sees the "Boats laden with sky and sea" and "Leaves of day and moss of dew," among other beautiful things. The poem, in other words, is a great example of the way that the Surrealists use association. These writers start thinking about one thing and that leads them into a whole train of associated images, all adding up to a comprehensive image of (in this case) love and tenderness.