Explore "O Make me a Mask" by Dylan Thomas on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O make me a mask and a wall to shut from your spies / Of the sharp, enamelled eyes and the spectacled claws / Rape and rebellion in the nurseries of my face, / Gag of a dumbstruck tree to block from bare enemies
The bayonet tongue in this undefended prayerpiece, / The present mouth, and the sweetly blown trumpet of lies, / Shaped in old armour and oak the countenance of a dunce / To shield the glistening brain and blunt the examiners, / And a tear-stained widower grief drooped from the lashes
To veil belladonna and let the dry eyes perceive / Others betray the lamenting lies of their losses / By the curve of the nude mouth or the laugh up the sleeve.