Page:The Poems of William Blake (Shepherd, 1887).djvu/157

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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.



THE SMILE.


THERE is a smile of love,
And there is a smile of deceit,
And there is a smile of smiles
In which these two smiles meet.
 
And there is a frown of hate,
And there is a frown of disdain,
And there is a frown of frowns
Which you strive to forget in vain.
 
For it sticks in the heart's deep core
And it sticks in the deep back-bone;
And no smile that ever was smiled,
But only one smile alone,—

That betwixt the cradle and grave
It only once smiled can be;
And when it once is smiled
There's an end to all misery.