The poet’s tone is

Read the poem below and answer questions 26 to 30.

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 mouths 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 god, 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!