“We Wear the Mask” Introduction

• Read the full text of “We Wear the Mask”

“We Wear the Mask” Summary

“We Wear the Mask” Themes

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  Oppression, Racism, and Identity

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• 

  Empowerment and Resilience

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “We Wear the Mask”

• Lines 1-2

  We wear the mask that grins and lies,
  It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

  

  

  

  

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• Line 3

  This debt we pay to human guile;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-5

  With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
  And mouth with myriad subtleties.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-7

  Why should the world be over-wise,
  In counting all our tears and sighs?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 8-9

  Nay, let them only see us, while
         We wear the mask.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-11

  We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
  To thee from tortured souls arise.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-13

  We sing, but oh the clay is vile
  Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 14-15

  But let the world dream otherwise,
         We wear the mask!

  

  

  

  

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“We Wear the Mask” Symbols

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  The Mask

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  Clay

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“We Wear the Mask” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Refrain

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• Rhetorical Question

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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“We Wear the Mask” Vocabulary

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• Guile
• Myriad
• Subtleties
• Over-wise
• Nay
• Vile

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “We Wear the Mask”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“We Wear the Mask” Speaker

“We Wear the Mask” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “We Wear the Mask”

More “We Wear the Mask” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Reading of "We Wear the Mask" — Listen to the poem read out loud.

  • Dunbar's Life and Legacy — More information about Paul Laurence Dunbar's biography from the Poetry Foundation.

  • Critiques of the Poem — An archive of scholarly critiques of "We Wear the Mask."

  • Maya Angelou's Interpretation — Maya Angelou reads her adaptation of Dunbar's poem, which further expands upon the themes of black experience, coded language, and survival.

  • More Poems by Dunbar — Access to more of the poet's literary work.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar

  • Sympathy