[Editor: This poem by Mary Eliza Fullerton was published in Moods and Melodies: Sonnets and Lyrics (1908).]
The Mask
Beneath the mask the spirit shall not fail
Though miser Life bestow but favours scant;
He whose fine ear is toward the seraph’s chant
Shall not lose heaven’s music in the wail
Of mortal lips; his own face pinched and pale,
Aglow with that unquenchable by want,
His soul with feasting gods communicant,
His strong heart following the Holy Grail.
Nor shall it fail his embassage to lead
The world’s dull feet along the upward road;
He gives the watchword of a thrilling creed,
And graves the tablets of the coming code;
In spite of all performs th’ allotted task
Soul must achieve however press the mask.
Source:
Mary E. Fullerton, Moods and Melodies: Sonnets and Lyrics, Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1908, p. 32
Editor’s notes:
seraph = an angel (one of the Seraphim), regarded as a highly-ranked order of angel (the Seraphim are mentioned in the Bible, in Isaiah 6: “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne . . . Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings”)
th’ = (vernacular) the
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