Rondeau · Life
We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar · 1895
1We wear the mask that grins and lies,
2It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
3This debt we pay to human guile;
4With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
5And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar — quilloak.com/poems/we-wear-the-mask
Quick facts
- Poem
- We Wear the Mask
- Poet
- Paul Laurence Dunbar
- Published
- 1895
- Length
- 15 lines
- Form
- Rondeau, Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Life, Strength
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 15 lines · 3 stanzas of 4–6 lines
- Refrains
- “We wear the mask.”“We wear the mask!”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a rondeau, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake
Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Paul Laurence Dunbar1872–1906
- Source record
- WikisourceWe Wear the Mask by paul-laurence-dunbar, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1895
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 2c7bb8b7ad485fd1…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.