A poem

We Wear the Mask
LONG LINE: Paul Laurence Dunbar (from "Majors and Minors," 1895)

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
LONG LINE: It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
LONG LINE: 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.

LONG LINE: 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!

LONG LINE: From http://poetry.about.com/od/poems/l/bldunbarrondeau.htm

Number of long lines: 5