Poem for CR
- What
- Poem for CR
- When
- 1/31/2018, 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
We Wear The Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar ο 1913
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Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was an influential African American poet during the early twentieth century. He was the son of freed slaves and a friend of Frederick Douglass. Critics have said βHe was the first to rise to a height from which he could take a perspective view of his own race. He was the first to see objectively its humor, its superstitions, its short-comings; the first to feel sympathetically its heart-wounds, its yearnings, its aspirations, and to voice them all in a purely literary form."
As you read the poem, take notes on Dunbar's use of figurative language and diction, and what these devices reveal about the poem's theme.
"Insomnia" by Evan is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.
[1]We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,β
This debt we pay to human guile;1
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
[5]And mouth with myriad2 subtleties.3
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.
[10]We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile4
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
[15]We wear the mask!
Does the speaker seem genuine when he recommends wearing 'the mask'? Consider when
the poem was written and the tone the speaker uses. Cite evidence from the text to
support your answer.