Eugene Gordon, "Life is a Masquerade" (1930)
Life is a masquerade,
Each face a mask,---
Life is a clown's parade.
Man's is the task
To play the mummer's part,---
To strut and grin
When pains possess his heart
As also when
There are no cares to heed.
Man's like the fty
Upon the maddened steed;
He shouts the cry:
"I am the center of
The core of things;
I am the maker of
Both gods and kings.
The universe to me?
My feet have trod
Wastes of infinity.
I am the god!" . . .
Life is a masquerade;
Each man's the task
To play the fool gods made
Him for his mask.
Published in Saturday Evening Quill, 1930