Poem "We wear the mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar?

Question

The Poem:

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!

Questions:

1) What is meant by "And mouth with myriad subtleties." i don't really understand it.

2) and when he says "We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise. " do you think he is make reference to Jesus because Jesus died in a very painful way?

Thank you.

Answer 1

1. The difficulty with this line is that "mouth" is used as a verb and refers to the way Blacks used language to avoid offending white people.

2. Blacks smile on the outside but shed their tears to Christ directly. In other words, their smiles are masks.