When--on a canvas--there shone on me
Two lovely brown eyes!

_Chorus._

Two lovely brown eyes!
Oh, what a surprise!
Smiling right down on a dingy throng,
Two lovely brown eyes!

From a canvas of "High Art" sort they shone,
Their owner was cinctured with classic zone,
She was spare of flesh, she was big in bone,
Oh, what a surprise!
A parson, whom everyone owned "a good sort,"
Had hung them there for the pleasure and sport
Of the dreary dwellers in slum and court,
Those lovely brown eyes!

_Chorus._

Two lovely brown eyes!
Oh, what a surprise!
Drawing the gaze of an East-End crowd,
Two lovely brown eyes!

My own regard, as I loitered there,
Fastened on one proletariat pair,
With finery frowsy, and oily hair;
Oh, what a surprise!