I am looking for the poem, "We Wear the Masks" by Paul A Dunbar. Am
not sure of poet's name and spelling.

Hi irig

I think you are looking for Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, 'We Wear the
Mask':

WE WEAR THE MASK

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 overwise,
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!

I found it on the website of the American Academy of Poets:
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=2007

The Academy also has an article about Dunbar's life and work starting:
"Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to
gain national recognition. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, on June 27,
1872, to Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar, freed slaves from Kentucky.
His parents separated shortly after his birth, but Dunbar would draw
on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing
career......"

Dunbar biography
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=310

In case you want to buy a book with it in, I found that Amazon have
one copy of his Complete Poems:

Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0396078958/qid=1035900272/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/103-0166128-5663839?v=glance

I hope this is helpful but please feel free to ask if you need any
clarification.

Regards - Leli

search used:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22we+wear+the+mask%22+dunbar&btnG=Google+Search

---

Clarification of Answer by leli-ga on 31 Oct 2002 07:41 PST

Thank-you very much for the nice feedback and the stars. I'm so glad I could help.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!  I have been searching for this poem for years.