Theme: Expression

The Age of Smiles

Shakespeare's, for one, was not an age of smiles:
Not one direction in the many plays
Mentions the word; not once the sonnet says
The lady, or the boy, his heart beguiles
With that expression; for the many wiles
Attributed to folk, no smile betrays
A plan; no, not until more recent days,
The 'photo' era, do the social styles
Global demand the 'cheese' configuration.
It seems one seldom smiled in Shakespeare's day;
And portraiture attests the Mona Lisa
Was shy too: was it mental aberration
To smile as we do? Was it not the way
Then to greet friends, to make amends, to please her?

 

 

 

09-Nov-2019

More By  :  R. D. Ashby

Views: 1518     Comments: 1

Comments on this Poem

Comment In Elizabethan times, it could be poor dental health management played a part in concealing one's early loss of teeth in the way a smile necessitates. I'm sure the bard himself had less than the perfect set of teeth - and what is it about gaps in teeth that adversely affect one's facial, one's soul's expression. Contemporary portraits of individuals are always close-lipped - or even Donne might look... less intelligent.

R D Ashby
10-Nov-2019 14:11 PM


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