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Grant Smith

Wilson

English 123-2895

May 20, 2018

The Easy Mask

How do you tell someone about your struggles? This is the question many authors face

when they write. Poets in particular must deal with this problem as their style is rooted in

conveying themes in an indirect manner. The desire to express grand ideas conflicts with the

traditional brevity of the style and requires some tricks with structure in order to accomplish.

Poets must generate rhythm, use vocabulary, specific line spacing, and employ other tools to

compensate for these limitations. This is precisely what Paul Laurence Dunbar does in his poem

“We Wear the Mask” in which he attempts to communicate the struggles of people, and more

specifically African Americans, as they try to hide their thoughts. The form of the poem supports

Dunbar’s theme that hiding one’s emotions is easier than letting them out.

Looking at the structure of the lines individually gives great insight into how Dunbar

communicates his theme. One of the first things one may notice is that most of the poem is

written in iambic tetrameter, with the exception of one line that is used twice and in iambic

dimeter: “We wear the mask” (9). This distinction serves two roles. Firstly, It draws the reader’s

attention to the line and communicates that the line is important. Secondly, the simplicity of the

line supports the theme by showing how easy giving a false appearance is compared to other

options, which are represented by the other, longer lines of the poem. The rhyming pattern can

also be observed as a tool to convey the theme of the work. Every line that is in iambic

tetrameter also ends with one of two sounds, while the iambic dimeter lines stand out from this
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pattern. This is yet another method Dunbar uses to draw attention to these particular lines. In

addition, the rhyming pattern starts off organized, but then starts seem random before ending in

“We wear the mask” (9). This reflects how dealing with these feelings can start out simply but

may quickly devolve into a convoluted mess and that hiding them away clears up any such

problems in a quick and easy manner. The make-up of the individual lines gives insight to the

themes of the poem, but Dunbar’s organization of the work as a whole is also significant.

Dunbar uses the structure of the entire poem to convey what people try to cover up as

well as how it relates to African Americans. The three sections of the poem represent the

different parts of themselves someone may try to hide. The first section addresses how we may

change the way we present our faces to hide what we’re thinking: “We wear the mask that grins

and lies,/ It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (1-2). This section relates to how people will

put on a fake smile because it can serve as a type of protection. Not letting other people know of

your struggles can relieve them of bearing them with you and help you maintain an image of

strength if it’s needed. The second section deals with the hiding one’s mental pains: “Why

should the world be over-wise,/ in counting all our tears and sighs” (7-8). Dunbar seems to

believe that not every bit of information has to be shared with everyone. This relates to African

Americans as the poem was written shortly after the abolishment of slavery and Dunbar was

commenting on not letting everyone know just how pain it had caused African Americans so that

they wouldn’t seem weak. The third and final section of the work relates to human spirit under

these circumstances. Dunbar mentions Christianity and prayer during rough times, reflecting

how African Americans may turn to religion to give them the strength to believe they can get

through daily life in a racist America. As Peter Revell points out the linkage to African

Americans is not immediately obvious: “It should be noted that the poem itself is “masked”, its
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link to the black race, though obvious enough, not being openly stated”. Part of the reason the

linkage becomes obvious is the imagery Dunbar invokes of slavery in the final section. Dunbar

makes reference to slaves singing during field work. He then mentions that there is long road

ahead of them, leaving it ambiguous to whether he means slaves or the African Americans of the

time of the writing, 1895, as it is true for both. The form of the sections reveals who would be

putting on the “mask” Dunbar is referring to as well as what that mask will help them hide.

Dunbar uses the form of the poem to show how the human spirit, as well as the mind and

outward appearance, will disguise themselves to provide the strength necessary for African

Americans to get through life in America in 1895 and into the future. Using line length and

rhyming to emphasize just how difficult life may become for them and how their only choice

may to be to put on a mask to get through it. All of this is communicated just 15 short lines. That

compactness is what makes poetry so amazing and yet so difficult. Using every piece of form

available to compress large ideas and feelings mean that reader or listener must also have the

tools to unpack each feature to truly understand the poem. Maybe this why poems often rhyme

and have rhythm, beyond creating emphasis they may also serve to simply draw an audience’s

interest so that the rest of the work can shine. Regardless, the use of from allows what may take

essays to explain in their entirety and allow them to flow within a singular work, this being true

for both poetry and almost all forms of literature.

Works Cited
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Dunbar, Paul. “We Wear the Mask.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J.

Mays, W. W. Norton, 2016, p. 704

Revell, Peter. “On ‘We Wear the Mask.’” Gwendolyn Bennett's Life and Career,

www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/dunbar/mask.htm.