Dunbar's Poem 'We War The Mask'
The poem, We Wear the Mask, was a beautiful poem. Many people can relate to having to hide their true feelings. I am one of those people. In lines 10 and 11, Dunbar says, “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries to thee from tortured souls arise.” To me, this was these lines really hit home the most. I can relate to feeling like I have no one to go to with my true feelings, except for Christ. He is the only person I know that will always be there for me no matter what the circumstance and I know that I won’t be able to hide my true feelings from Him anyway, no matter how well I can hide them from the world. Two of my favorite lines in this poem are lines 6 and 7, which say, “Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and
sighs?” I feel like these lines can really hit home for a lot of people today. The world is always trying to judge people, when in reality, they shouldn’t care. The world doesn’t need to know everything we go through. It is not their job to know every little thing about our lives. I want to talk about the minority communities in the world for a moment, whether it be race, religion, or something else, they are the people that have the worst of it. When I read lines 12-15, in which Dunbar says, “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!” These lines show that there is still a lot of progress that has to be made. This is still true today. People have earned more rights and respect, but the minorities are still judged on a daily basis and the world still has a long way to go before all of the prejudice against them is gone. I know there will always be prejudice, but hopefully, it will continue to decrease. This poem is so powerful and I’m grateful that I had the pleasure to read it. I can relate to this and I know a lot of other people can as well, which is the main reason I love We Wear the Mask so much.
sighs?” I feel like these lines can really hit home for a lot of people today. The world is always trying to judge people, when in reality, they shouldn’t care. The world doesn’t need to know everything we go through. It is not their job to know every little thing about our lives. I want to talk about the minority communities in the world for a moment, whether it be race, religion, or something else, they are the people that have the worst of it. When I read lines 12-15, in which Dunbar says, “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!” These lines show that there is still a lot of progress that has to be made. This is still true today. People have earned more rights and respect, but the minorities are still judged on a daily basis and the world still has a long way to go before all of the prejudice against them is gone. I know there will always be prejudice, but hopefully, it will continue to decrease. This poem is so powerful and I’m grateful that I had the pleasure to read it. I can relate to this and I know a lot of other people can as well, which is the main reason I love We Wear the Mask so much.