Poems of Sentiment and Imagination/Smiles
SMILES.
Have you ne'er felt, when the laugh rang out
With the merry peal and the echoed shout,
And the jest flew round with a hearty glee,
And the bright eye laughed right merrily—
Have you ne'er felt that the shaft of pain
Was meant to be clothed in that merry strain?
And did not the thought, like a magic spell,
Choke up your voice with your spirit's swell,
And your tone grow hoarse while you laughed on still,
Though it fell on your heart with a painful thrill;
And you trembled and shrunk like a guilty thing,
Lest the tears should escape their hidden spring?
And a word, a single careless word,
Fell from the lips that many heard;
But you of the hearers alone knew well
What that careless word was meant to tell;
Still you jested on with a hearty glee,
Though your heart sunk cold and joylessly!
And there was an eye you feared to meet,
Lest its glance should sink to the deep retreat
Of the burning thoughts and scalding tears
That sear the heart with grief of years,
And awaken the fountain that must o'erflow,
Lest it burst the heart with its strength of woe!
Far down in the spirit's deep, deep well,
There was hidden a grief that none might tell;
For the eye laughed on, and the lip was bright,
And none might dream of hopeless night
Whose shadow so heavy and cheerless all,
Had wrapt your heart in its gloomy pall.
O trust not smiles, for their light may hide
A heart where each gushing hope hath died;
And guide your lips, lest the careless jest
Should sadden a heart that hath long supprest
Its harrowing fears with a careless air,
And bound with a smile-wreath the brow of despair.