Masks
These tales of old disguisings, are they notStrange myths of souls that found themselves amongUnwonted folk that spake a hostile tongue,Some soul from all the rest who'd not forgotThe star-span acres of a former lotWhere boundless mid the clouds his course he swung,Or carnate with his elder brothers sungE'er ballad makers lisped of Camelot?
Old singers half-forgetful of their tunes,Old painters colour-blind come back once more,Old poets skilless in the wind-heart runes,Old wizards lacking in their wonder-lore:
All they that with strange sadness in their eyesPonder in silence o'er earth's queynt devyse?
Words in this poem
- unwonted a.
- Not wonted; unaccustomed; unused; not made familiar by practice; as, a child unwonted to strangers.
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- carnate a.
- Invested with, or embodied in, flesh. [L. carnatus fleshy.]
- forgetful a.
- Apt to forget; easily losing remembrance; as, a forgetful man should use helps to strengthen his memory.
- sadness n.
- Heaviness; firmness.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Masks is in the public domain. This text is taken from Personae, Project Gutenberg ebook #41162; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Ezra Pound, Masks, in Personae (1909), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #41162, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pound-personae/masks.html, id L01206.
Form and metre
Masks is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 43% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBA notA · amongB · tongueB · forgotA · lotA · swungB · sungB · camelotA
- 2 ABAB tunesA · moreB · runesA · loreB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| These tales of old disguisings, are they not | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Strange myths of souls that found themselves among | 10 | ······˘/·· |
| Unwonted folk that spake a hostile tongue, | 10 | ˘/˘····/˘· |
| Some soul from all the rest who'd not forgot | 10 | ········˘/ |
| The star-span acres of a former lot | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where boundless mid the clouds his course he swung, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Or carnate with his elder brothers sung | 10 | ·/˘··/˘/˘· |
| E'er ballad makers lisped of Camelot? | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Old singers half-forgetful of their tunes, | 10 | ·/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Old painters colour-blind come back once more, | 10 | ·/˘/˘····· |
| Old poets skilless in the wind-heart runes, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Old wizards lacking in their wonder-lore: | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| All they that with strange sadness in their eyes | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Ponder in silence o'er earth's queynt devyse? | 10 | /˘·/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.