We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile
The first three lines of the poem establish the voice, tone, and motivations of its speakers. Using the first person plural pronoun "we," the speakers represent themselves as a collective of individuals who share the experience of "wear[ing] the mask," or, performing a certain identity that contradicts their true emotions ("It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes"). The tone of the speakers is assertive, in that they confess (without much hesitation) that they are participating in a collective act of dishonesty. The masqueraders also express their indebtedness to "human guile," establishing that the mask is a device, and tactic, that works in their favor.
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Lines 4 and 5 visualize the visceral suffering that the speakers hide behind their masks. The image of physical injury evoked by the "torn and bleeding hearts" suggests that the concealed pain is a result of external aggression, violence, and trauma, rather than something that arises from within. The act of "mouth[ing] with myriad subtleties" not only refers to the need to self-censor language, but also suggests a sense of disembodiment that separates the "mouth" from the mind and humanity of its speaker. Trauma, in other words, has reduced the mask-wearers to mere mouths.
But let the world dream other-wise,
We wear the mask!
The last two lines reiterate the masqueraders' wish to keep the rest of the world away from the truth of their device. The verb "dream," used to refer to the gap of misunderstanding between the two entities, not only suggests fantasy and incomprehension, but also suggests a state of dormancy, indifference, and complacency on the part of the non-masqueraders. While the mask-wearers leave their outsiders in oblivion, the poem itself alerts its reader to the hidden trauma of real-life masqueraders. The poem closes then with an iteration of the refrain that, with the addition of an exclamation point, illustrates the force of the mask-wearers' defiance, and emphasizes the political and protesting voice of the piece.
