A person may appear one way on the outside but may be feeling the total opposite on the inside. He may be masking his true emotions with a false appearance. In "We Wear the Mask" it seems that Paul Laurence Dunbar is sending this message to his readers . Dunbar was born in Ohio after the conclusion of the American Civil War. Thus, he was never enslaved, however, his parents had been, he heard lots of stories of people being enslaved from his parents and others. In this poem, Dunbar specifically talks about racism and how he’s feeling from …show more content…
"We sing, but oh, the clay is vile" is another line in that expresses a sense of people not being able to show their true feelings.
In this poem, Dunbar is expressing his feelings to the readers in a way that makes them understand what he’s feeling from the inside. The poet expressed his feelings in an understanding way, he didn’t show a lot of emotions and feelings because he wants the poem to relate to other people.
Imagery deepens the poet’s words as he draws pictures on the reader’s mind to make it clearer instead of just telling us what he feels. Dunbar used some of imagery in his poem for example the verse, “we wear the mask that grins and lies” that’s a personification the poet compares the mask to a person that grins and lies in the same time. The poet uses hyperbole, he exaggerates with the power of the mask in the line “with torn and bleeding hearts we
There are multiple examples of visual imagery in this poem. An example of a simile is “curled like a possum within the hollow trunk”. The effect this has is the way it creates an image for the reader to see how the man is sleeping. An example of personification is, “yet both belonged to the bush, and now are one”. The result this has is how it creates an emotion for the reader to feel
s one such “mask” that profoundly affected Dunbar personally. Revell failed to see the possibility that “We Wear the Mask” could represent anything but the turmoil the black slaves endured because of Dunbar’s disposition as a descendent of slaves. However, the interpretation that this poem speaks to all people is supported more fully through the text as a result of Dunbar’s use of the universal “we” in coercion with religious reference. All people wear this “mask” and until one figures out the most appropriate way to take it off, “the world dream otherwise” and all will continue to fool and be fooled by the world’s countless masks. Works Cited Revell, Peter.
In the poem the author slowly attempts to explain to the audience that our existence can get better with companionship, but when alone, life can be very sorrow by using the method of concrete diction. In the text Dunbar states, "A pint of joy to a peck of trouble." The author briefly demonstrates the main idea by using measurements and weights which is something well- known and visual for the audience to imagine. Since a peck is more than a pint the author therefore shows that life is mostly remembered as sorrow than joy. Dunbar creates a pessimistic, yet well- informed tone. This therefore creates a
“We Wear The Mask,” was made out to be about the African American’s hiding their anger and pain from the whites at the time. Dunbar writes in a iambic pentameter, meaning he pairs unstressed and stressed syllables, giving the reading a more meaningful feeling as you read it. He rhymes using couplets throughout the entire poem, rhyming “lies” and “eyes,” “guile” and “smile,” showing the contrast between the two. The rhyming scheme that Dunbar uses makes reading this poem very fluent and easy. Dunbar also uses metaphors when he says, “with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.” Throughout this entire poem, Dunbar uses many figurative devices to get his point across; his point is that we wear a mask to cover our sadness and we lie to avoid telling people what we are truly going through. Especially when Dunbar refrains, “we wear the mask,” to really make it prominent in the readers mind. “We Wear The Mask,” is a traditional structured poem with set stanzas and a repeated rhyming
The two poems, “Recipe” and “We Wear The Mask” highlight different struggles faced by non-white Americans based on their physical features. “Recipe” highlights the taunting Asian Americans received based on the shape of their eyes. “We Wear The Mask” alternatively describes a metaphorical mask the author and many African Americans wore to attempt to fit in with the rest of the world and hide their pain. Both poems deal with struggles of people who don’t quite fit in with the world around them, be it because of their race or any other factor, but both come with a message of how to deal with the pain that the struggles result in.
This reiterates the fact that the people behind the mask are sad and in despair of the life they cannot have because they are black. Beginning the second stanza, Dunbar asks with sarcastic dispassion, “Why should the world be over-wise in counting all our tears and sighs?” (lines 6-7). Dunbar’s blatant strike at society is referring to the undeniable ignorance of how clearly unfair and cruel people were treated at the time and how many people still chose to ignore how wrong it was. However, Dunbar recognizes that whites will never question their ways and blacks will never take off their masks to tell them to.
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 be otherwise” (13). The unreal character of the mask has played a significant role in the lives of African Americans, who pretend to put on a smile when they feel sad internally. This occasion, 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).
Imagery is a key part of any poem or literary piece and creates an illustration in the mind of the reader by using descriptive and vivid language. Olds creates a vibrant mental picture of the couple’s surroundings, “the red tiles glinting like bent plates of blood/ the
“There is only one way in which one can endure man’s inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one’s own life, to exemplify man’s humanity to man.” by Alan Paton
“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.
Individuals use masks as covers to hide our inner feelings, but as George Eliot stated, "Don’t judge a book by its cover.” In “We Wear the Mask” , Paul Lawrence Dunbar uses metaphor, repetition and paradox to express the idea that in order to fit in with an oppressive society, African Americans must conceal the pain and suffering they experience.
but the rest of the poem continues "DEY was talkin' in de cabin, dey was talkin' in de hall;
little to do with the actual emotions that are the subject of the poem. In "East
“We wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar talks about people, especially African Americans who are forced to wear a mask to cover their faces and hide their true feelings behind the mask. The poem talks about people who have been tortured and choose to conceal their pain and frustrations behind a mask. They refuse to allow the world to see their pain instead, they want the world to only see their mask of contentment. The summary, symbolism, figurative language, poetry devices help understand the poem’s message.
I wrote this poem to describe my experience in baptism. It was a life-changing event for me, and I felt like I needed to share that. I became a new person.