We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar

 

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guilde;

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 slay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask.

 

Bloch’s expressionist painting and Dunbar’s moving poem about the plight of African Americans share a common theme of social deception.