Emily Dickinson

A happy lip—breaks sudden

Summary


"A happy lip—breaks sudden" is a short poem that sets two kinds of smiles side by side. One breaks open without warning, quick and unplanned. The other is worn with careful patience, so steady that it begins to resemble pain. Dickinson's speaker studies this second smile, freshly gilded and polished to turn away every searching glance. In only a few dashes, the poem asks what a face is hiding and whether merriment can be a mask. Read it online for free.

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A happy lip—breaks sudden—
It doesn’t state you how
It contemplated—smiling—
Just consummated—now—
But this one, wears its merriment
So patient—like a pain—
Fresh gilded—to elude the eyes
Unqualified, to scan—

A woman with a composed smile and sad eyes sits by a window, illustrating Emily Dickinson's poem A happy lip—breaks sudden.
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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive 19th-century American poet, best known for her compressed lines and her distinctive dashes. Most of her poems were published only after her death, and this one shows her gift for fitting a whole emotional world into a handful of lines.