We Wear the Mask
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
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!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 431 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | aabbx aabC aabbaC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 502 |
Words | 101 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 6 |
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"We Wear the Mask" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28997/we-wear-the-mask>.
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