We Wear the Mask
Fifteen lines on the face you put on for everyone else.
1 min · Paul Laurence Dunbar · The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar · 1913 · public domain
We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!
From The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1913. Public domain — read the whole book free.
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