RPO -- Thomas Hardy : The Masked Face

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Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

The Masked Face

1I found me in a great surging space,

2 At either end a door,

3And I said: "What is this giddying place,

4 With no firm-fixéd floor,

5 That I knew not of before?"

6 "It is Life," said a mask-clad face.

7I asked: "But how do I come here,

8 Who never wished to come;

9Can the light and air be made more clear,

10 The floor more quietsome,

11 And the doors set wide? They numb

12 Fast-locked, and fill with fear."

13The mask put on a bleak smile then,

14 And said, "O vassal-wight,

15There once complained a goosequill pen

16 To the scribe of the Infinite

17 Of the words it had to write

18 Because they were past its ken."

Notes

3] giddying: dizzying.

14] vassal-wight: servant-person.

Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy (London: Macmillan and Co., 1932): 490. PR 4741 F32 Robarts Library.
First publication date: 1917
Publication date note: Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (London: Macmillan, 1917): 191. H378 M645 1917 Fisher Rare Book Library
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/2/13

Rhyme: ababba

Other poems by Thomas Hardy