We Wear The Mask Poet: Paul Laurence Dunbar

TP-CASTT Analysis

Poem: We Wear the Mask Poet: Paul Laurence Dunbar

Title

I think this poem can be abstract or straightforward because it can have a hidden meaning about hiding or have a concrete meaning about something or somewhere that a mask is needed like a masquerade or occasion. But, I predict this poem is abstract.
Paraphrase

We wear the mask that grins and lies, they wear a mask that smiles and lies
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— you can’t see their cheeks or eyes
This debt we pay to human guile they have to pay because of deceitfulness
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, they smile even with their hearts shredded
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
subliminal messages come from the mouth Why should the world be over-wise, why should the world know everything
In counting all our tears and sighs? they count every time someone cries or sighs
Nay, let them only see us, while no, they should only be seen while they wear We wear the mask. the mask

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries they smile, but God, when people pray or cry
To thee from tortured souls arise. to him it comes from pain
We, sing but oh the clay is vile they sing but the clay under their feet is evil
Beneath our feet, and long the mile; and the mile to walk is long
But let the world dream otherwise, let the world overlook it We wear the mask! they wear the mask

Connotation

In the first line “”the mask that grins and lies” is personified because masks can’t lie because it’s an inanimate
object.

The “mask” they refer to in this poem is a metaphor that Dunbar portrays as a veil “they” hide behind.
Attitude

I think this poem expresses a lot of disguised or indirect sentimentality about being emotionally tortured and just having to suck it up and deal.
Shifts

In the second to the last line, where he says “but let the world dream otherwise,” is a shift from Dunbar expressing his sorrow and frustration to just letting the world believe what they want even though it’s not true and it’s only what they want to see.
Title

My prediction about the title of this poem was correct. The poem talks about a specific group of people wearing a mask to put up a good front and hide their true feelings.
Theme

I think the theme of the poem is to not just judge people by what you see and get to know them first because the outside could be totally opposite from the inside.