Apropos is this debate about whether an intentional :) shows up in a 1648 poem: http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/04/15/emoticon_robert_herrick_s_

Apropos is this debate about whether an intentional :) shows up in a 1648 poem: http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/04/15/emoticon_robert_herrick_s_17th_century_poem_to_fortune_does_not_contain.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/04/15/emotico... Here's the verse: Tumble me down, and I will sit Upon my ruines (smiling yet :) I think that the article does a fairly convincing job of showing that this is just weird 17th century typography, but then again, there was enough experimentation with printing at the time that it also wouldn't surprise me if it was intentional, at least at some point in the typesetting process.