VIII - How many masks wear we, and undermasks,

                                                                                          How many masks wear we, and undermasks,

                                                                                          Upon our countenance of soul, and when,

If for self-sport the soul itself unmasks,

                                                                                          Knows it the last mask off and the face plain?

                                                                                          The true mask feels no inside to the mask

                                                                                          But looks out of the mask by co-masked eyes.

                                                                                          Whatever consciousness begins the task

                                                                                          The task's accepted use to sleepness ties.

                                                                                          Like a child frighted by its mirrored faces,

                                                                                          Our souls, that children are, being thought-losing,

                                                                                          Foist otherness upon their seen grimaces

                                                                                          And get a whole world on their forgot causing;

                                                                                                                                          And, when a thought would unmask our soul's masking,

                                                                                                                                          Itself goes not unmasked to the unmasking.