(1872-1906 / Ohio / United States)

poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
#32 on top 500 poets
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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!

Submitted: Monday, January 20, 2003


Read poems about / on: smile, dream, world

Comments about this poem (We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar )

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  • Ernest Makuakua (5/9/2013 2:17:00 AM)

    nice piece youve written there love it more

    0 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • Shahzia Batool (5/8/2013 8:56:00 PM)

    A bold confession....yes, we wear a mask...

    0 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • Bob Wynn (5/8/2013 2:57:00 PM)

    Very revealing for a mask thing but adequate to explain the mindset.

    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • Tinara Cook (5/8/2013 11:59:00 AM)

    I made a poem just like this

    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • Thomas Yarborough (5/8/2013 10:47:00 AM)

    Reminds me of Charles Bukowski's Dinosauris, We but not quite as cynical as his ;) Rated it 10. Good job.

    1 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • Meshack Bankole (5/8/2013 7:16:00 AM)

    Kudos laurence! We wear the mask of selfishness, ego and self-deception. Yet Christ‘s death - our shame and sorrow bear without wearing a mask of shame and self-pity.
    The mask - all must set ablaze once and for all.

    3 person liked.
    		0 person did not like.
  • Olaniyan David (5/8/2013 3:23:00 AM)

    it's a poem of truth. That tells or shows how guilty we are, yet proven innocent with all the hidden things. We all have the task to avert this!

    3 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • Elena Sandu (5/8/2012 8:27:00 PM)

    Sigh... Soul wearing a smiling mask to keep the world survive on dreams! Oh dear poet, we are only a bit over a century late, if you could watch how the whole world came to be a masked slave...

    18 person liked.
    		2 person did not like.
  • Carlos Echeverria (5/8/2012 10:55:00 AM)

    We still, and always will, wear the Mask...the mask of civility.

    10 person liked.
    		1 person did not like.
  • Godfrey Morris (5/8/2012 7:52:00 AM)

    This poem is truly awesome. It has truth

    8 person liked.
    		4 person did not like.
Read all 34 comments »

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