Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A MASQUERADE, by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A MASQUERADE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A little old woman before me
Last Line: "that I was ninety-nine."
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Masquerades; Mothers & Daughters; Old Age


A LITTLE old woman before me
Went slowly down the street,
Walking as if aweary
Were her feeble tottering feet.

From under her old poke-bonnet
I caught a gleam of snow,
And her waving cap-string floated
Like a pennon to and fro.

In the folds of her rusty mantle,
Sudden her footstep caught,
And I sprang to keep her from falling
With a touch as quick as thought.

When, under the old poke-bonnet,
I saw a winsome face,
Framed in with the flaxen ringlets
Of my wee daughter Grace.

Mantle and cap together
Dropped off at my very feet,
And there stood the little fairy,—
Beautiful, blushing, sweet.

Will it be like this, I wonder,
When at last we come to stand
On the golden, gleaming pavement
Of the blessed, blessèd land?

Losing the rusty garments
We wore in the years of Time,
Shall our better selves spring backward
Serene in a youth sublime?

Instead of the shapes that hid us,
And made us old and gray,
Shall we get our child-hearts back again,
With a brightness that will stay?

I thought—and my little daughter
Slipped her dimpled hand in mine.
"I was only playing," she whispered,
"That I was ninety-nine."





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