Ben Morris

10/8/13

Poetry

Mr. Wensman

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!

Poetry Analysis of ‘We Wear the Mask’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar

WHAT?

                “We Wear the Mask” has three stanzas with an ABABC/DDEF/ GGHHIJ rhyme scheme. In the first stanza Dunbar is clearly using the mask as a metaphorical representation of our own face, yet he exploits how we use this mask to deceive everyone around us. The first stanza has many details pertaining to the face and how it act, showing one thing when we feel another. How we lie to each other with a smile and what makes this more interesting is that the wearing of the mask seems voluntary. Dunbar here is seemingly trying to exploit how deception and lying is already engrained in our human nature.

                The second stanza has fewer lines than the rest but has a very clear message. Dunbar openly states that we use our face to literally mask our emotions from both others but also the world. That we have to be closed off to everyone and we only truly feel comfortable wearing the mask of deception.

                The third stanza is the most powerful of the three. Dunbar brings religion into his poem in the first line of the stanza, calling out to him for his relief of the opposition towards African Americans and their struggle to gain equal rights. The clay is a symbol, showing how his race as a whole is seemingly stuck in this ‘vile clay’ and that the ‘mile’ of clay they have to get through is to gain equal rights. But that no matter what they would wear the mask.

WHY

                Dunbar is seemingly trying to explain that there is more to a person than just what their face or ‘mask’ tells you.  This mask may say one thing when the person is feeling the exact opposite way on the inside. The mask is hiding the people’s deepest secrets, fears, and harsh realities. Yet he favors wearing the mask even though it is a detrimental attribute that humans have

WHO

                ‘We Wear the Mask’ is written in first person and written with a longing and almost suffering tone to it. A tone of defeat. It implies he feels like his culture has to wear a mask of happiness while they are being subject to awful treatment being slaves.

WHERE/WHEN

                It was written in 1896 when African Americans were not still slaves yet were fighting for equal rights. This is very significant because the poems foundation is upon racism and how the culture feels they have to act. This poem was very dangerous to write since at the time speaking out against whites could result in being murdered.

HOW?

                The breaking up with the stanzas fits how the flow of the poem works. The first stanza reveals how Dunbar believes that all people as a whole do is deceive each other. And how the African American race feels it the most at the time. The second stanza is shorter, and allows Dunbar to say how he feels that their race should keep the mask on with almost a feeling of defeat and contempt. The Final stanza captures how they feel stuck as a culture. That they are in the thick of it in the ‘vile clay’ and must continue on towards their goal of equality.

SO WHAT?

               

                The Metaphor of the mask hiding the essential pieces of the face that reveal emotion is the perfect one for explaining how he and his race felt. It allows for him to indirectly say how the African Americans of the time had just gained their freedom but yet are still not equal.