Book 2 — IF I WERE A SMILE.

———

BY RICHARD COE.

———

If I were a smile, a beautiful smile,

I would play o’er the infant’s face,

And stamp such an heavenly impress there

That never a tinge of sorrow or care

Should ever its beauty efface,

To appear the while,

If I were a smile, a beautiful smile.

If I were a sigh, a sorrowing sigh,

In the breast of a maiden fair;

I would speed me on angel wings above,

And lie like a beautiful wounded dove

At the feet of my Saviour there,

Till he heard my cry,

If I were a sigh, a sorrowing sigh.

If I were a tear, a bright, pearly tear,

In the eye of a Christian mild;

I would flow at the sight of keen distress,

As the dew-drop falls on the earth to bless,

To calm the heart from tumult wild

Were my task so dear,

If I were a tear, a bright, pearly tear.

But as I am neither a smile nor sigh,

Nor even a tear pearly bright;

But an humble poet singing the while,

The world of its sorrows and to beguile,

I’ll scatter my songs with delight

To the passer-by,

Till smiles take the place of the tear and sigh.