THE LAST MASQUERADE

By Gilbert Keith Chesterton

A wan new garment of young green

Touched, as you turned your soft brown hair

And in me surged the strangest prayer

Ever in lover's heart hath been.

That I who saw your youth's bright page,

A rainbow change from robe to robe,

Might see you on this earthly globe,

Crowned with the silver crown of age.

Your dear hair powdered in strange guise,

Your dear face touched with colours pale:

And gazing through the mask and veil

The mirth of your immortal eyes.