Not Always Glad When We Smile

NOT ALWAYS GLAD WHEN WE SMILE

JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

We are not always glad when we smile;
Though we wear a fair face and are gay,
And the world we deceive
May not ever believe
We could laugh in a happier way, --
Yet, down in the deeps of the soul,
Ofttimes, with our faces aglow,
There’s an ache and a moan
That we know of alone,
And as only the hopeless may know

We are not always glad when we smile, --
For the heart, in a tempest of pain,
May live in the guise
Of a smile in the eyes
As a rainbow may live in the rain;
And the stormiest night of our woe
May hang out a radiant star
Whose light in the sky
Of despair is a lie
As black as the thunder-clouds are.

We are not always glad when we smile! –
But the conscience is quick to record,
All the sorrow and sin
We are hiding within
Is plain in the sight of the Lord;
And ever, O ever, till pride
And evasion shall cease to defile
The sacred recess
Of the soul, we confess
We are not always glad when we smile.