Rondeau · Life
We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar · 1895
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 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 clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
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.
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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.
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