`We Wear the Mask` by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We Wear the Mask

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 overwise

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 ' by Paul Lawrence Dunbar , is a melancholy and forceful poem written about the falseness and frailty of humans and the resiliency they are capable of maintaining . Some may equate this piece specifically with slavery and how slaves would hide their true feelings from white people as a means of withholding some true measure of themselves from the white people . But , given that this piece was written after the publication of his first book and his appearance at the Worlds fair - in other words later in his short life - I would consider this more of a measure of humanity up to the time it was written rather than of a specific era in his ancestry

Dunbar begins the poem with , We wear the mask that grins and lies Right away , he lets you know that he considers himself a part of the we ' that he is black . We also know from this beginning that although the mask holds a grin , what you see with the mask is not what is real He is also acknowledging here that he is a willing element of this deception and that if whites are more comfortable imagining all blacks minstrel-like then he is willing to play that role

The second line , It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes ' is Dunbar 's way of letting the reader know that it is the mask 's wearer 's physical countenance that is purposely hidden . In Dunbar 's time physical characteristics assigned to races were much clearer and less ambiguous than in today 's world . Although stereotypes still run amok today , they were taken as wholly factual many years ago . People of African descent had fuller cheeks and dark eyes . The mask they wore would hide this from observers

This debt we pay to human guile ' clearly states that it is human endeavors which have created a world were some must hide from others Dunbar wishes the reader to know that it is through the cunning deceitfulness of other humans , white people , that black people are forced to pay for the wickedness of others

The first stanza concludes with , With torn and bleeding hearts we smile / And mouth with myriad subtleties (4-5 . Here , Dunbar informs the reader that despite the ravages with which blacks are faced , they continue to thrive and will continue to grow in ways in which the average...