Thomas Hardy - The Masked Face lyrics

I found me in a great surging space, At either end a door, And I said: "What is this giddying place, With no firm-fixed floor, That I knew not of before?" "It is Life," said a mask-clad face. I asked: "But how do I come here, Who never wished to come; Can the light and air be made more clear, The floor more quietsome, And the doors set wide? They numb Fast-locked, and fill with fear." The mask put on a bleak smile then, And said, "O va**al-wight, There once complained a goosequill pen To the scribe of the Infinite Of the words it had to write Because they were past its ken."