A-Z POETRY

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 over-wise,

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!

“We Wear the Mask” is a lyric blend of author and reader. Rather than telling a story, Dunbar uses second person plural to create a shared experience between the reader and persona. The poem invites the reader to imagine what life may be like in the 19th Century for an African American citizen in the United States. Through his style choice a line such as, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries,” becomes all the more powerful a contrast between physical expression and what may be emotionally felt inside.

Often Dunbar uses a more comedic formula in his lyrical poetry to maintain an appearance on the surface, covering the emotions anchoring the poetry like anger and frustration. Joanne Baxter describes how Dunbar’s use of the“‘we’ of the poem is the black folk collective . . . or perhaps the real Dunbar lifting the mask from his danced language to speak plainly and unequivocally.” The use of the “Mask” as a recurring theme in this poem begs the question of just how often and how much of Dunbar’s work is rooted in the masked persona, and how much is the true emotion of author putting away his mask.