This debt we pay to human guile,
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
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!
What effect does the poet achieve by repeating the phrase, "We wear the mask" throughout the poem? Complete the sentences to answer the
question.
In the poem "We Wear the Mask," Paul Laurence Dunbar voices his repressed anger and frustration toward American society. He repeats the
title phrase three times in the poem, using the words mask and we to show that
The first use of the phrase is matter-of-fact. In the
second stanza, the statement is followed by a period, which shows resignation. However, at the end of the poem, Dunbar almost shouts the
phrase defiantly. The mask seems to become something he wears proudly. Through this gradual emphasis on the phrase, Dunbar could be
implying that