Famous Smile Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Smile poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous smile poems. These examples illustrate what a famous smile poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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Her smile was shaped like other smiles --

by Emily Dickinson
 Her smile was shaped like other smiles --
The Dimples ran along --
And still it hurt you, as some Bird
Did hoist herself, to sing,
Then recollect a Ball, she got --
And hold upon the Twig,
Convulsive, while the Music broke --
Like Beads -- among the Bog --...Read more of this...

Smile Smile Smile

by Wilfred Owen
 Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned
Yesterday's Mail; the casualties (typed small)
And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul.
Also, they read of Cheap Homes, not yet planned;
For, said the paper, "When this war is done
The men's first instinct will be making homes.
Meanwhile their foremost need is aerodromes,
It being certain war has just begun.
Peace would do wrong to our...Read more of this...

Dream Song 58: Industrious affable having brain on fire

by John Berryman
 Industrious, affable, having brain on fire,
Henry perplexed himself; others gave up;
good girls gave in;
geography was hard on friendship, Sire;
marriages lashed & languished, anguished; dearth of group
and what else had been;

the splendour & the lose grew all the same,
Sire. His heart stiffened, and he failed to smile,
catching (enfit) on.
The law: we must, owing to chiefly shame
lacing our pride, down what...Read more of this...

The Paradox

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 I am the mother of sorrows, 
I am the ender of grief; 
I am the bud and the blossom, 
I am the late-falling leaf.

I am thy priest and thy poet, 
I am thy serf and thy king; 
I cure the tears of the heartsick, 
When I come near they shall sing.

White are my hands as the snowdrop; 
Swart are...Read more of this...

You Smile Upon Your Friend To-Day

by A E Housman
 You smile upon your friend to-day, 
To-day his ills are over; 
You hearken to the lover's say, 
And happy is the lover. 

'Tis late to hearken, late to smile, 
But better late than never; 
I shall have lived a little while 
Before I die for ever....Read more of this...

To The Painter Of An Ill-drawn Picture of Cleone

by Anne Kingsmill Finch
 Sooner I'd praise a Cloud which Light beguiles, 
Than thy rash Hand which robs this Face of Smiles; 
And does that sweet and pleasing Air control, 
Which to us paints the fair CLEONE's Soul. 
'Tis vain to boast of Rules or labour'd Art; 
I miss the Look that captivates my Heart, 
Attracts my Love, and tender Thoughts inspires; 
Nor...Read more of this...

Smile You Are On Cctv

by Barry Tebb
 Even the charity shops boast of the surveillance

Mr Average is caught on camera a hundred times a day

To provide unending footage for reality TV

But in a decade where will we all be?

Big Brother’s eye will see our every step,

The blink of every eye, the tears we cry....Read more of this...

The Withering Of The Boughs

by William Butler Yeats
 I cried when the moon was mutmuring to the birds:
'Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will,
I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words,
For the roads are unending, and there is no place to my mind.'
The honey-pale moon lay low on the sleepy hill,
And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams.
No boughs have withered because...Read more of this...

New Years Eve

by Henry Van Dyke
 I 

The other night I had a dream, most clear 
And comforting, complete
In every line, a crystal sphere,
And full of intimate and secret cheer. 
Therefore I will repeat
That vision, dearest heart, to you,
As of a thing not feigned, but very true,
Yes, true as ever in my life befell;
And you, perhaps, can tell
Whether my dream was really sad or sweet....Read more of this...

Without a smile -- Without a Throe

by Emily Dickinson
 Without a smile -- Without a Throe
A Summer's soft Assemblies go
To their entrancing end
Unknown -- for all the times we met --
Estranged, however intimate --
What a dissembling Friend --...Read more of this...

I Came to buy a smile -- today

by Emily Dickinson
 I Came to buy a smile -- today --
But just a single smile --
The smallest one upon your face
Will suit me just as well --
The one that no one else would miss
It shone so very small --
I'm pleading at the "counter" -- sir --
Could you afford to sell --
I've Diamonds -- on my fingers --
You know what Diamonds are?
I've...Read more of this...

Upon the Priory Grove His Usual Retirement

by Henry Vaughan
 Hail sacred shades! cool, leavy House! 
Chaste treasurer of all my vows, 
And wealth! on whose soft bosom laid 
My love's fair steps I first betrayed: 
Henceforth no melancholy flight, 
No sad wing, or hoarse bird of night, 
Disturb this air, no fatal throat 
Of raven, or owl, awake the note 
Of our laid echo, no voice dwell 
Within...Read more of this...

Erin! The Tear and the Smile in Thine Eyes

by Thomas Moore
 Erin! the tear and the smile in thine eyes 
Blend like the rainbow that hangs in thy skies, 
Shining through sorrow's stream, 
Saddening through pleasure's beam, 
Thy suns with doubtful gleam, 
Weep while they rise. 

Erin, thy silent tear never shall cease, 
Erin, thy languid smile ne'er shall increase, 
Till, like the rainbow's light, 
Thy various tints unite, 
And...Read more of this...

The Made to Order Smile

by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 When a woman looks up at you with a twist about her eyes, 
And her brows are half uplifted in a nicely feigned surprise 
As you breathe some pretty sentence, though she hates you all the while, 
She is very apt to stun you with a made to order smile. 

It's a sublte combination of a sneer and a...Read more of this...

Afterwards

by Duncan Campbell Scott
 Her life was touched with early frost,
About the April of her day,
Her hold on earth was lightly lost,
And like a leaf she went away.

Her soul was chartered for great deeds,
For gentle war unwonted here:
Her spirit sought her clearer needs,
An Empyrean atmosphere.

At hush of eve we hear her still
Say with her clear, her perfect smile,
And with her silver-throated thrill:
"A little...Read more of this...

Smile

by Ehsan Sehgal
"Smile has always reasons in it, pleasure, happy, politeness, love, habit or sometimes sorrows, sadness, madness, worries, critic and defeat make you smile too, but it one way cures and other way also hurts the people and a person himself whatever who is."
Ehsan Sehgal...Read more of this...

Sonnet XXIV

by Francesco Petrarch
[Pg 253] SONNET XXIV. Gli occhi di ch' io parlai sì caldamente. HIS LYRE IS NOW ATTUNED ONLY TO WOE.  The eyes, the face, the limbs of heavenly mould,So long the theme of my impassion'd lay,Charms which so stole me from myself away,That strange to other men the course...Read more of this...

The Smile on the Face of a Kouros

by William Bronk
 This boy, of course, was dead, whatever that
might mean. And nobly dead. I think we should feel 
he was nobly dead. He fell in battle, perhaps, 
and this carved stone remembers him 
not as he may have looked, but as if to define
the naked virtue the stone describes as his. 
One foot is forward, the eyes look out, the...Read more of this...

Little Girls Must Not Fret

by Jane Taylor
 What is it that makes little Emily cry? 
Come then, let mamma wipe the tear from her eye: 
There­ -- lay down your head on my bosom­ -- that's right,
And now tell mamma what's the matter to-night. 

What! Emmy is sleepy, and tired with play? 
Come, Betty, make haste then, and fetch her away; 
But do not be fretful,...Read more of this...

Then, Most, I Smile

by Victor Hugo
 ("Il est un peu tard.") 
 
 {Bk. III. ***., Oct. 30, 1854.} 


 Late it is to look so proud, 
 Daisy queen! come is the gloom 
 Of the winter-burdened cloud!— 
 "But, in winter, most I bloom!" 
 
 Star of even! sunk the sun! 
 Lost for e'er the ruddy line; 
 And the earth...Read more of this...

The Power of a Smile

by Tupac Shakur
The power of a gun can kill
and the power of fire can burn
the power of wind can chill
and the power of a mind can learn
the power of anger can rage
inside until it tears u apart
but the power of a smile
especially yours can heal a frozen heart ...Read more of this...

The Gardener XL: An Unbelieving Smile

by Rabindranath Tagore
 An unbelieving smile flits on your
eyes when I come to you to take my
leave.
I have done it so often that you
think I will soon return.
To tell you the truth I have the
same doubt in my mind.
For the spring days come again 
time after time; the full moon takes
leave and comes on another visit,
the flowers come again and blush
upon their...Read more of this...

Awake To Smile

by Robert William Service
 When I blink sunshine in my eyes
 And hail the amber morn,
Before the rosy dew-drop dries
 With sparkle on the thorn;
When boughs with robin rapture ring,
 And bees hum in the may,--
Then call me young, with heart of Spring,
 Though I be grey.

But when no more I know the joy
 And urgence of that hour,
As like a happy-hearted boy
...Read more of this...

Textures

by Barry Tebb
 The grain of the exposed boards

Speaks through the wall of the years

We are back in our cottage

On the wind-swathed hills

Watching late winter dawns

Gather like kindled flame.

We are back with those winter dusks, -

The hyaline air hung in darkness

And a vale of stars, waking in blankets

Laid on bare boards, making a fire

From our dreams.

We are walking through mist

On snow-skirled roads,...Read more of this...

Music In The Flat

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 When Tom and I were married, we took a little flat; 
I had a taste for singing and playing and all that.
And Tom, who loved to hear me, said he hoped 
I would not stop
All practice, like so many wives who let their 
music drop.
So I resolved to set apart an hour or two each day
To keeping vocal chords...Read more of this...

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