'WE WEAR THE MASK' - Paul Laurence Dunbar _MY THOUGHTS

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.