The Masked Face
The Masked Face
Original Text
Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy (London: Macmillan and Co., 1932): 490. PR 4741 F32 Robarts Library.
1I found me in a great surging space,
2 At either end a door,
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,
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."
Publication Start Year
1917
Publication Notes
Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses (London: Macmillan, 1917): 191. H378 M645 1917 Fisher Rare Book Library
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme