The speaker describes a woman welcoming guests, her smiling eyes and graceful manner making everyone feel she is full of peace and love. She seems so warm, witty, and at ease that no one would imagine grief has touched her. To the people around her, she appears lifted above ordinary pain, as if her life is whole and untroubled. But the final lines reveal the truth: beneath that lovely, composed exterior she carries a deep and private wound, like a two-edged sword buried in her heart. The mood is elegant and admiring at first, then quietly sorrowful. It captures how well people can hide their suffering behind charm and sociability, and how easily others mistake a polished surface for inner peace.
Masked — Summary
She rose to greet her guests with smiling eyes, A wealth of rich experience in her face, Her movements full of that unconscious grace In which a woman's highest power lies; One felt the heart beat true and tenderwise Beneath the velvet folds and filmy lace, Grim sorrow there had seemed to find no place, But only peace and love in loveliest guise.
And as with ready wit and kindly mirth She led the throng in repartee and jest, To us she seemed as one from common earth, With all its blighting pain, set far apart And rounded in with peace — who could have guessed A two-edged sword lay buried in her heart !