We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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 overwise,
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!
This lyric poem is laid out in iambic tetrameter, which means that each of the lines have four sets of both stressed and unstressed syllables; a total of eight syllables per line. The only lines that don’t follow this pattern are lines 9 and 15. Historically, Dunbar wrote “We wear the mask,” in the middle of the age of slavery, and it about the oppression that black Americans of the time. More specifically, the “story” of the poem is about how slaves at the time had to hide their pain and suffering behind a fake wall of happiness and contentment.
The message of the poem can be just as relevant today; not the slavery aspects mind you, just the thought that we individuals each wear a mask that hides who we really are. There is always one thing, no matter how small, that no-one in you lie knows about you.
Moving on. Lyric poems as a whole do not have to have an “end rhyme,” This one however does; for example, working in an “a a b b c” pattern in the first stanza. This basic pattern continues with the second and third stanza; however, the syllables do change. Making the second stanza “d d e f,” and the third, “a a b b c g.” Yes, the third stanza combines the first two, somewhat, but it is no less affective. What makes this a strong lyrical poem, again, are the strong images depicted of such a hard period of U.S. history, and the powerful feelings and emotions expressed within the lines.
- David James Scalea
I love so Love this poem 'human guile' means deceit, cunning or treachery. So in this poem, it means that the mask is a smiling face that is hiding a treacherous purpose. I like your take on the lyrics. To me it means we hide our true feelings. I agree the message of the poem would still be revelant. They are both about the unfulfilled desire to be fully free to participate in the full spectrum of adventure that life holds. Behind the mask, because in the day and time of its writing it could be a matter of life or death for an African American to let his or her true feelings be known about indignities and abuse suffered. Within the cage, it's the internal conflicts one had seeing, feeling,smelling, tasting the possibilities of life that one is denied by the laws of the land and the brutalities of the lawless of the land to whom the law turned blind eyes.
ReplyDeleteCraig Fontenot
Davis- I really liked this poem. I truelly think that it is true that we all do wear a mask. Thank you for giving us the meaning of iambic tetrameter because honestly I would have no idea what that means. I really liked the poem you choose. I like poems that ryme and flow really well together and I think that this poem does that.
ReplyDelete-Ashley
sorry I ment to put david my hand slipped on the keys. ashley
ReplyDeleteDunbar's poems were probably the first I ever read as a child and by far he is one of my favorite poets. My Mom performed one of his longer poems in a black history program at church once, he was very fond of the dialect of the time and I truly enjoyed his rhyme structure.
ReplyDeleteCindy D.