Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1921/Plaint

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THE SORROWFUL MASQUERADE
Even as to a music, stately and sad,The young girls' feet begin to move in a dance,And curiously for joy shift and advance;So to a mournful waltz, sombre and sweet;All laughing things move with delighted feet,So all things that draw light and laughing breathMove to the mournful waltz of life and death.Comedy is a girl dancing in timeTo the tragic pipes, sorrowful and sublime;And ever she laughs back, and as she skipsMimics the mournful music with her lips;Then for sheer anger at her own pretenseSobs violently at her own vehemence,And mocks her tears. But when the pipings sleepShe needs must cover up her face and weep.
Poetry, A Magazine of VerseJohn Hall Wheelock

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