Question

1.What does the mask symbolize?

2.Could this poem apply to other people who are not African-American? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar


1 We wear the mask that grins and lies,
2 It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,­-
3 This debt we pay to human guile;
4 With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
5 And mouth with myriad subtleties.

6 Why should the world be over-wise,
7 In counting all our tears and sighs?
8 Nay, let them only see us, while
9 We wear the mask.

10 We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
11 To thee from tortured souls arise.
12 We sing, but oh the clay is vile
13 Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
14 But let the world dream other-wise,
15 We wear the mask!

Answer 2

@ranga