“.. 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.”

—  Paul Laurence Dunbar , book The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

We Wear The Mask, in the 1913 collection of his work, The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Context: 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!

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Paul Laurence Dunbar 5
American author 1872–1906

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