Mandragora/The Mask

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For works with similar titles, see The Mask.

Published in Mandragora (1917)

572388The MaskJohn Cowper Powys

THE MASK


WITH treacheries bitter and deep
  I have kept my place.
With a mask like the mask of sleep
   I have covered my face.

I have smiled while my heart beneath
   Was deadly with fate,
And the sword in my jewelled sheath
   Was white with my hate.

But now as you lift up your hand,
   Light as a flower,
By the word of the wind in the sand
   I know it, my hour!

And I drop my mask and let fall
   The sheath from my sword —
You shall know me, O my one of all,
   As I am before God !

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1963, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 60 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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