Is John Smith Within?

Is John Smith Within? is a tiny rhyme with a lot of charm packed inside. Someone knocks, asks for John Smith, and finds him busy at his trade. But what exactly is he doing? The last line, with its hammering “tick–tack–too,” could belong to a shoemaker fixing leather shoes or a blacksmith nailing a horseshoe. That double picture gives the verse its lasting appeal.

Origins

Nobody really knows when this rhyme first took shape, but it was already in print by the 1700s. “John Smith” was the most ordinary name in England, which made the verse feel familiar everywhere. The clever part is the trade: “set a shoe” could point to the cobbler on his bench or the blacksmith in his forge. 

Meaning

The rhyme works almost like a miniature play. One voice asks the question, another answers, and the hammer does the rest. For children, the fun came from repeating the lines and mimicking the sound effects — “tick–tack–too.” For adults, the double meaning may have been part of the joke: whether John Smith fixed shoes or shoed horses, the result was the same — he was hard at work, and the noise told you so.