Paul
Lawrence Dunbar
We
Wear the Mask
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 overwise,
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!
W.
D. Howells, ed., The Complete Poems of Paul Lawrence
Dunbar
(New York: Dodd, Mead, 1918) 71.