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Literary analysis essay
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The poem “ We Wear the Mask” was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar .The poem is about the mask, humans wear to disguise pain, sadness, or turmoil when in the company of others. The speaker opens with the title of the poem so that readers know that the “mask” is really important.In the beginning of the poem we see that the people’s hearts are not just"torn" (4) but also "bleeding" (4). which really emphasizes the struggle behind the mask. The poem is about people who have a lot of pain, but pretend it is not there by wearing a mask to cover it up.The poem is universal, but it says “We" (1.) At the end of the poem the people still continue to smile while dying on the inside. They believe that it is no good reason to show anyone what’s behind the mask because it will do them no justice. To them the only person that knows what is behind the mask is God.
In "We Wear The Mask”, Paul Laurence Dunbar describes how people purposely change their external appearances and how this can be both detrimental and helpful. He does this through metaphors and personification. Personification is in the title of the poem, “ We Wear the Mask,” (1) which suggest that he is personifying the mask because people wear it like it is a second face or alive. Dunbar gives the mask human characteristics because the people have allowed the mask to go from being temporarily on their face to permananent. It is ironic that they wear the mask to conceal their suffering, but it causes them to suffer more. Dunbar also uses metaphors to exaggerate the emotions in the poems. He uses metaphor when the poem says “ the clay is vile” (12). The metaphor provides a more visual feeling so that the audience can understand that even the earth that they walk on rejects them. Per...
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...plete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company. 1922 Print.
Dunbar, Laurence Paul. “ After the Quarrel”. The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company. 1922 Print
Dunbar, Laurence Paul. “ We Wear the Mask.” The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Gates, Henry Louis and Nellie Y. Mckay. New York: W.W. Norton, 1977. Print.
Dunbar, Laurence Paul. “ Temptation “. The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. W.D. Howells: Dodd, Mead, and Company New York. 1922. Print.
“The Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar." The Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar. N.p., 3 Feb. 2003. Web.
Howells, William D. "Publishers' Bindings Online: Paul Laurence Dunbar." Publishers' Bindings Online: Paul Laurence Dunbar. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
"Paul Laurence Dunbar." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
upon the natural ability of the race in song and is acknowledged to be Dunbar's
Paul Laurence Dunbar is one of the most influential African American poets to gain a nationwide reputation. Dunbar the son of two former slaves; was born in 1872 in Dayton, Ohio. His work is truly one of a kind, known for its rich, colorful language, encompassed by the use of dialect, a conversational tune, and a brilliant rhetorical structure. The style of Dunbar’s poetry includes two distinct voices; the standard English of the classical poet and the evocative dialect of the turn of the century black community in America. His works include a large body of dialect poems, standard English poems, essays, novels, and short stories. The hardships encountered by members of is race along with the efforts of African Americans to achieve equality in America were often the focus of his writings. http://www.dunbarsite.org/
The author was born in Washington D.C. on May 1, 1901. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College where he studied traditional literature and explored music like Jazz and the Blues; then had gotten his masters at Harvard. The author is a professor of African American English at Harvard University. The author’s writing
...did through his poems. Although the themes of slavery, past and longing were depicted in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poems, he provided a different aspect in each one; portraying ‘A Drowsy Day’ of a lonely reminiscent narrator, who was trapped in their confined home as well as their mind, being unable to escape from the constant swirl of memories. He uses ‘An Old Memory’ to convey the past as positive and full of hope, although disappointed by his present day, the past remained to have a ‘subtle charm’ – contrastingly in ‘Sympathy’, the poet describes the past as ‘cruel’, thus portraying it in a more dark and unwelcome light. Arthur Miller portrays the past as full of regret for Biff, but also of ambition for his father. All of these texts portrayed the past as a place where identity was stronger, however it could be argued that the past was where slaves had no identity.
"Paul Laurence Dunbar." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit; Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Bowie High School, Arlington TX. 19 Nov. 2009.
The poem, "We Wear the Mask”, by Paul Laurence Dunbar is about separating Blacks people from the masks they wear. When Blacks wear their masks they are not simply hiding from their oppressor they are also hiding from themselves. This type of deceit cannot be repaid with material things. This debt can only be repaid through repentance and self-realization. The second stanza of “We Wear the Mask” tells Blacks whites should not know about their troubles. It would only give them leverage over Blacks. Black peoples’ pain and insecurities ought to be kept amongst themselves. There is no need for anyone outside the black race to know what lies beneath their masks. The third stanza turns to a divine being. Blacks look to god because he made them and is the only one that can understand them. They must wear their mask proudly. The world should stay in the dark about who they are. This poem is about Blacks knowing their place and staying in it. This is the only way they could be safe.
While exploring an unknown island and struggling to survive, a group of schoolboys reveal their primitive, barbarous identities in William Golding’s work, Lord of the Flies. Similarly, Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African American poet, describes the hidden nature of individuals in order to protect themselves and conceal their pain. Golding’s novel and Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask,” both express masks as means of escaping reality and a source of strength; however, the pressures of society suppress the characters in Dunbar’s poem while the boys in Lord of the Flies unleash true feelings through their innate savageness.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
Poetry Foundation. Ed. Poetry Foundation. Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
One pattern that is easily identified is that of religiosity. The mission of this poem was to reminds the slaves that God would free them one day, just like he did the Israelites. However, in order for a slave to believe that, he or she needed to have a belief in something greater than his or her current situation. Yet, they could not be impatient with this belief and think that it was coming soon. In “An Ante-bellum Sermon,” Dunbar tells his audience “Don’t you git to brigity;/An’ don’t you git to braggin’/Bout dese things, you wait an’ see.” If a poem was spoken like this during slavery, it would be sure to prompt the slaves not take their freedom into their own hands. Therefore, throughout the poem Dunbar is consistently reminding them that they will have to suffer first in order to one day gain their humanity and freedom. With an understanding of these Black Arts patterns, the mission of the poem is
Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 04 Dec. 2013. The "Biography of Langston Hughes." Poemhunter.com.
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” is a lyric poem in which the point of attraction, the mask, represents the oppression and sadness held by African Americans in the late 19th century, around the time of slavery. As the poem progresses, Dunbar reveals the façade of the mask, portrayed in the third stanza where the speaker states, “But let the dream otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role over the life of African Americans, whom pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This ocassion, according to Dunbar, is the “debt we pay to human guile," meaning that their sadness is related to them deceiving others. Unlike his other poems, with its prevalent use of black dialect, Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” acts as “an apologia (or justification) for the minstrel quality of some of his dialect poems” (Desmet, Hart and Miller 466). Through the utilization of iambic tetrameter, end rhyme, sound devices and figurative language, the speaker expresses the hidden pain and suffering African Americans possessed, as they were “tortured souls” behind their masks (10).
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar and “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson are two poems that depict how many people hide their feelings from others. The two poems are similar in theme, but are told from different points of view and differ in plot.
Laurence Dunbar's "Ship That Pass In The Night" is a cry for opportunity for all men, regardless of race. Dunbar's poem directly parallels a passage from Frederick Douglass' autobiography that gives an account of his life as a slave. Both Douglass and Dunbar look out at the ships that sail by and see hopes for societal changes. Although they both sought change, their aspirations were quite different. Frederick Douglass watched the ships from ashore, wishing for freedom and for slavery to be abolished. Paul Laurence Dunbar on the other hand was already a free man. He was on a ship, still more of an opportunity than Douglass had, yet he was still in search for new opportunities for African Americans. The new opportunities that he seeks are upon a ship somewhere sailing in the dark night and keep passing him by.
He is a hustler to the end, a smooth-talker who is now at home in his new ego and his new profession. Jones employs the dynamics of change in his speaker throughout the poem. From an aimless vagrant to a passionate revolutionary, Jones plots his speaker's course using specific words and structural techniques. Through these elements, we witness the evolution of a new black man—one who is not content with the passivity of his earlier spiritual leaders.