---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 10
number: 2
published: 1906-12
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Smiles Will Lighten Duty: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 2 (December 1906): 99.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1002unse
start_page: 99
end_page: 99
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-12)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse
  publication_year: 1906
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Smiles Will Lighten Duty: A Poem

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Smiles will strangely lighten every duty Just a little word of cheer may span a sky of gray With hope's own heaven- tinted bow of beauty. Wear a pleasant face wherein shall shine a joyful heart, As shines the sun, the happy fields adorning To every care-beclouded life some ray of light impart, And touch your lips with gladness every morning. —Selected.