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 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!
I just had to
write down my thoughts about this poem. I was having drinks with a friend of
mine one cool evening when he showed me this piece by Dunbar. We were talking
about poetry, writers and the likes. When I read it, my first reaction was
rejection. I told my friend that Dunbar's assumption that everybody wears a
mask was preposterous! After all, I was sitting in front of him and giving him
the most genuine of smiles that I had. His first reaction was to smile then ask
'are you sure that you have been giving me a genuine smile?' I stopped to think
again...
I had just read the poem
once on his phone that was my first interpretation. My friend advised me to
read it again at my convenience and give him feedback later on my thoughts.
The poem is written in a
free rhyming verse and its message is easily passed across to whoever is
reading it. The poet, Paul Lawrence Dunbar was born June 27, 1872, Dayton, He
later died in Ohio on February 6, 1906.
Dunbar's articulate
summary of a portion human nature is quite superb. Every writer draws his
inspiration from his experiences and environment. Maybe as at the time Dunbar
was writing this piece, he didn't even know that he had managed to capture this
summary and he was going through a phase in his life. The central theme of the
poem is the Vulnerability of Human Nature which is the portion of human nature
he captures.
His poem brings to the
fore the facades that people wear while they live their lives. Many people are suffering and smiling underneath the dazzling radiance of a smile. We are wont to
ask what this mask is and if we really do encounter and express originality in
our everyday lives. This poem no doubt leaves us skeptical about reactions that
we would normally not pay attention to. It would make you think again about
your own expressions. If you decide to point the finger or claim that other
people wear this mask, take a moment’s thought about your actions because you
also wear a mask.
Another message
intricately woven in this fantastic piece of work is the vulnerability of self.
The mask in question I assume is our defense mechanism. Every person is equipped
with their own peculiar type of defense system that enables them seem to appear
less vulnerable or not vulnerable to circumstances in life. An individual who
has gone through a period of pain would easily identify with these lines. We
see this in the first, second and third line of the first stanza and the first
line of the last stanza in the poem;
“We
wear the mask that grins and lies,
It
hides our cheeks and shades our eyes
With
torn and bleeding hearts we smile..”
Dunbar personifies the
world. In my interpretation, the 'world' is ‘they (second stanza first line)
and 'us' 'I'. It gives you a sense of you and the world. in the second stanza,
he expresses what I think is his defiance of what the world makes their
business and so in the third line of the second stanza, he express that he uses this mask to block what he does not want the world to see
and what he wants the world to see:
“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.”
If we also take a look deeper
in to the background of Dunbar, we may draw our conclusions from his
experiences as a Black man living in Ohio shortly after the second civil war. Even though the law made the black free, black people still experienced a high
level of racism during that period. Thus, it is because of the foregoing that we can say
that the ‘us’ and ‘we’ that Dunbar used in his poem refers to the
black people and ‘the world’ referred to white people.
Finally, anyone can
identify with the first line of the fourth stanza-‘we smile, but, O great
Christ our cries’. In our suffering and pain, deep in us where only our
thoughts can visit, we cry out for help. ‘Christ’ symbolizes the help that we
all cry for when we are in pain. I do not know whether Dunbar was a religious
person but if he was, he was appealing to Christ for help.
We indeed wear the mask.
We indeed wear the mask.
