We Wear the Mask

“We Wear the Mask” is a timeless poem written in standard English with a clear rhyme scheme and familiar meter. In the poem, the collective speakers address an audience from behind a metaphorical “mask,” which becomes the reigning metaphor throughout the poem, representing the tactics marginalized communities must constantly perform in order to survive in an oppressive world.

The mask “grins and lies” (Line 1), hiding them behind a false sense of satisfaction or happiness, and as a result, a false sense of peace. The poem does not provide any identification for the speakers, who they are, or what race they belong to, making this poem particularly intriguing considering its place in history. The lack of recognition haunts the poem, adding weight to the “debt” the speakers pay to an undeserving collective who remain ignorant of their own “human gile” (Line 3).

While the poem does not reveal the true identity of the speakers, the extended metaphor of the mask provides a platform for the poem’s main concerns to come into play, such as themes of racism, oppression, identity, and resilience, specifically to that of African Americans in a racist and oppressive post-Civil War America society as Dunbar was known to write extensively about.

The mood and tone of the poem work together to express its themes clearly and effectively. First, Dunbar’s choice of a plural voice extends the poem’s reality of a collective speaker against an unjust world, with each stanza revealing something to the reader, but always at a safe distance. Stanza 1 uses language like “grins and lies” (Line 1), “human gile” (Line 3), and “bleeding hearts” (Line 4), which produces a visceral effect for the reader. Stanza 2 reveals the world as it is seen from behind the mask, undeserving of the speakers’ authenticity. The visual of a “grin” or “smile” is referenced three times in the poem, twice as a smile and once as a grin. The title phrase also appears three times throughout the poem, reinforcing this sense of resilience against all odds, leaving the rest of the world to its delusions.

Along with the specific refrain of “we wear the mask” and other recurring images, a clear rhyme scheme and formal structure (to be discussed in later sections) give the poem its dual nature. Just like Dunbar uses African American dialect in his other works for tone and nuance, this poem uses traditional English, and a traditional form, in juxtaposition with the speakers’ distress, inner turmoil, and lack of foundation. Each stanza is self-contained, each line meticulously built, which becomes a metaphor for the work it requires to maintain the false identity so that one’s true identity can survive.

Line 4 again reveals what is hidden behind the smile, those “torn and bleeding hearts.” Dunbar quietly reveals what is behind the mask without giving too much away, through “myriad subtleties” (Line 5). This gives the reader a sense of being in on the secret, seeing what is behind the mask, revealing the nature of the speakers’ dueling identities—who is behind the mask, and who the world sees.

Stanza 2 opens with the question “Why should the world be over-wise / in counting all our tears and sighs?” (Lines 6-7). Here, the speakers ruminate on the value of sharing their suffering to an ignorant world. To whom would it actually benefit to let the world “count all our tears and sighs” (Line 7)? The speakers defy the notion, “Nay, let them only see us, while / we wear the mask” (Lines 8-9), ending the stanza by repeating the title of the poem as a refrain, emphasizing the constant struggle and need to maintain this disguise to survive and maintain control. If “we” can’t be who we are, “the world” does not get to see “us” as we are.

The third stanza brings back this ever present “smile” (10), another repeated image, which reinforces the idea that it takes constant work to maintain this disguise, and to survive in such a climate of racism and oppression; the speaker both maintains an outward appearance as well as a separate inner identity, and both carry the emotional burden: “We smile, O great Christ, our cries / to thee from tortured souls arise” (Lines 10-11). The path they traverse remains unfinished as “vile” and muddy “clay,” “beneath [their] feet, long the mile” (Line 13), as if distances were created differently for different people.

The poem ends on that same binary note, with the speakers showing their lack of hope for change for the others. “But let the world dream otherwise” (Line 14), they state, for they are not worthy of seeing. The poem ends on the final refrain “We wear the mask!” (Line 15), as is common with the poem’s form. Even though there is little hope for the world, the defiance in the end shows resilience, which can also be interpreted as hope.