Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MASK by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Poet Analysis

First Line: I HAVE A SMILING FACE, SHE SAID
Last Line: WHOM SADDER CAN I SAY? SHE SAID.
Subject(s): GRIEF; SORROW; SADNESS;
I

I HAVE a smiling face, she said,
I have a jest for all I meet,
I have a garland for my head
And all its flowers are sweet, --
And so you call me gay, she said.

II

Grief taught to me this smile, she said,
And Wrong did teach this jesting bold;
These flowers were plucked from gardenbed
While a death-chime was tolled:
And what now will you say? -- she said.

III

Behind no prison-grate, she said,
Which slurs the sunshine half a mile,
Live captives so uncomforted
As souls behind a smile.
God's pity let us pray, she said.

IV

I know my face is bright, she said, --
Such brightness dying suns diffuse:
I bear upon my forehead shed
The sign of what I lose,
The ending of my day, she said.

V

If I dared leave this smile, she said,
And take a moan upon my mouth,
And tie a cypress round my head,
And let my tears run smooth,
It were the happier way, she said.

VI

And since that must not be, she said,
I fain your bitter world would leave.
How calmly, calmly smile the Dead,
Who do not, therefore, grieve!
The yea of Heaven is yea, she said.

VII

But in your bitter world, she said,
Face-joy's a costly mask to wear;
'T is bought with pangs long nourished,
And rounded to despair:
Grief's earnest makes life's play, she said.

VIII

Ye weep for those who weep? she said --
Ah fools! I bid you pass them by.
Go, weep for those whose hearts have bled
What time their eyes were dry.
Whom sadder can I say? she said.



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