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 couting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Crhist, 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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We Wear the Mask is as quoted from Reading Poetry: An Anothology of Poems.