THERE is a foe,
Secret and certain,
Hiding behind life's every curtain;
Behind each quest
And each achieving —
Behind all beauty, all believing.

And ever ready
Is he to thrust
A skull-face through and make all dust;
To rend faith's veil
And leave earth's clod
Dreary and destitute of God.

And not the wariest
Can escape
This foe's palling and pitiless shape;
For, ever with cold
And certain intrusion,
He comes, Implacable Disillusion.