by William Blake (1757 - 1827)
There is a smile of love
Language: English
There is a smile of love, [and]1 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 backbone. And no smile that ever was smiled, but only one smile alone -- That betwixt the cradle and grave it only once smiled can be, but when it once is smiled there's an end to all misery.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 omitted by Mitchell.
Text Authorship:
- by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The smile" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by (Thomas) Athanasios Aronis (b. 1935), "The smile", from Blake Song Cycle, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jacob Avshalomov (1919 - 2013), "The smile", published c1970 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from cantata Wonders, no. 1, NY : Duchess Music Corp / MCA (Belwin-Mills) [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Nathaniel Baker, Jr. (b. 1931), "The smile", 1969, from Five Settings for Soprano and Piano, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Hal Freedman (b. 1953), "The smile", 1981 [ mezzo-soprano, synthesizer/piano, trombone, contrabass, and drum ], note: text altered by the composer (changes not shown) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "There is a smile", op. 27c no. 2 (1973) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Mitchell (b. 1941), "The smile", op. 25 no. 7 (1977), from Visions from the Flame, no. 7 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 105