Hiding behind that elaborate disguise, that façade.
The world is watching, waiting, judging;
What is life, but this big masquerade?
An elaborate disguise, a well-crafted charade --
My ears have grown weary of all the criticising
Hiding behind that elaborate disguise, that façade.
Concealed behind this paper mask, I am on parade.
All that pretense, the deception unending.
What is life but this big masquerade?
No choice in how I am being portrayed
Tears on paper cuts -- but I keep smiling
Hiding behind that elaborate disguise, that façade.
All those things I am trying to evade.
Deception's price. Who am I fooling?
What is life but this big masquerade?
How does one face life’s endless tirade?
I can feel my walls crumbling.
Puppets on a string, foolishly played.
What is life but this big masquerade?
Facades are found in our everyday lives. No one knows who lies beneath one’s mask. Our life is a performance on a stage (the world). We put on a ‘mask’ and conceal our true selves. I was inspired by a quote by Lord Bryon: “And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade.” I thought about how sometimes we put up a front in a bid to blend in. We may not be expressing what we actually think.
I mostly followed the a villanelle format , but I tweaked the 2nd last line such that I used a new line instead on A1 to show that the writer’s thoughts are shifting, and that the subject is unable to keep up her facade any longer. I wanted to imply that the writer felt as though life was controlling her instead of her actions determining her future.
I also made use of eye-rhyming with the word façade. I wanted to show that things may not be what they actually are in the sense that the mask that people wear will conceal their true selves and in another way, facade looks as though it rhymes but it does not.