Parker Quinn

    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!

                                 -Paul Laurence Dunbar

[Richard Cory] was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean-favoured and imperially slim... 

..And he was rich, yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine -- we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

...And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet in his head.

                                                     -Edwin Arlington Robinson

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Mostly I lay down and grieve like the coward I am, for I would rather be a coward instead of the soldier that will not be rid of their pain. 

-Parker Quinn