The Smile
The Smile
Original Text
Pierpont Morgan Library MS ("The Ballads [Pickering] Manuscript"). William Blake's Writings, ed. G. E. Bentley, Jr. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978): II, 1303. PR 4141 B45 Robarts Library.
1There is a smile of love,
2And there is a smile of deceit,
3And there is a smile of smiles
4In which these two smiles meet;
5And there is a frown of hate,
6And there is a frown of disdain,
7And there is a frown of frowns
8Which you strive to forget in vain,
9For it sticks in the heart's deep core,
10And it sticks in the deep back bone,
11And no smile that ever was smil'd,
12But only one smile alone
13That betwixt the cradle and grave
14It only once smil'd can be,
15But when it once is smil'd,
16There's an end to all misery.
Publication Start Year
1807
Publication Notes
(the date of the writing of the manuscript)
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2003
Rhyme
Form