Page 316

By Jack Joseph Smith

I went away with Heaven siveral times And I failed I went away with Hell many more and was successful

Original Scan

Page 316

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker bluntly confesses repeated failure with Heaven and repeated success with Hell, turning salvation and damnation into outcomes measured by experience rather than doctrine.

The force comes from how little it explains. Heaven is not mocked or denied, only failed, which makes goodness sound difficult rather than false. Hell, by contrast, is described as familiar terrain, a place of competence, appetite, or practiced ruin.


Claude

A six-line confession built on a single antithesis: 'I went away with Heaven / siveral times / And I failed / I went away with Hell / many more / and was successful.' The austerity is the point - Heaven is not denied but simply failed, making goodness sound hard rather than false, while Hell is rendered as familiar, practiced ground where the speaker succeeds. Salvation and damnation become measured outcomes of experience, not doctrine. The source spelling 'siveral' is preserved.