Oh Poems Where Art Thou?

We Wear the Mask
by 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 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!


We put on a show for people when we are sad. When we are/feel alone. We wear masks to avoid emotions, attention, sorrow, etc. "To thee from tortured souls arise." If you take just that and think about it, people that cover their REAL self with a mask are only tortured souls. If you're not yourself how can anyone know you? How can you say you have friends when they probably have only seen the mask you wear? Heard the mask you wear. Watched the mask you wear. I only have this to say - Be yourself. If you aren't accepted then they are not a friend in the first place.

~Melissa Anne