How the meanings of words change!
If he was writing now, John Ruskin would certainly have second thoughts about the fifth line of the poem below.
Today it would probably provoke a smirk or a snigger - but not in his time, when it would have conveyed the meaning of 'light-hearted' or 'happy'.
THE LAST SMILE
She sat beside me yesterday
With lip, and eye, so blandly smiling,
So full of soul, of life, of light,
So sweetly my lorn heart beguiling
That she had almost made me gay--
Had almost charmed the thought away--
(Which, like the poisoned desert wind,
Came sick and heavy o'er my mind)--
That memory soon mine all would be,
And she would smile no more for me.
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (1819 – 1900) is best known for his work as an art critic, writer and social critic, but he is also remembered as an author, poet and artist.
His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
'When the world was young and gay'