Raymond Garfield Dandridge’s “Masquerading” looks at how often people’s expressions misrepresent their inner lives. The speaker describes a person whose lips are smiling while the eyes are full of tears, with a heart so bitter it seems like a cup of bile. Then the poem flips the idea: a stern, unsmiling face may actually be a mask hiding deep happiness. Both stanzas suggest that outward appearances are unreliable. The mood is quiet, observant, and a little melancholy, as if the speaker has learned through experience how much people hide. It leaves a gentle warning not to assume a smile means joy or a hard face means coldness, because nearly everyone is, in some way, masquerading.
Masquerading — Summary
The lips so often frame a smile While the eyes in salt tears swim And heart, repellent cup of bile, Is filled to kiss the brim.
Oft firm and stern we find a face, Devoid of outward sign, A mask before the dwelling place Of happiness divine.