66 Paul Laurence Dunbar

Matthew Teutsch

We Wear the Mask

Full Text:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44203/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 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!

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Paul Laurence Dunbar Copyright © by Matthew Teutsch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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