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: