"We Wear the Mask" was written by African American poet and novelist Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1895. Like much of Dunbar's work, "We Wear the Mask" is a reaction to the experience of being black in America in the late 19th century, following the Civil War—a period when life seemed to have improved for black Americans yet in reality was still marked by intense racism and hardship. Dunbar compares surviving the pain of oppression to wearing a mask that hides the suffering of its wearer while presenting a more joyful face to the world. All that said, the poem itself does not specifically mention race; its message is applicable to any circumstance in which marginalized people are forced to present a brave face in order to survive in an unsympathetic, prejudiced society.
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The Full Text of “We Wear the Mask”
1We wear the mask that grins and lies,
2It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
3This debt we pay to human guile;
4With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
5And mouth with myriad subtleties.
6Why should the world be over-wise,
7In counting all our tears and sighs?
8Nay, let them only see us, while
9 We wear the mask.
10We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
11To thee from tortured souls arise.
12We sing, but oh the clay is vile
13Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
14But let the world dream otherwise,
15 We wear the mask!
The Full Text of “We Wear the Mask”
1We wear the mask that grins and lies,
2It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
3This debt we pay to human guile;
4With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
5And mouth with myriad subtleties.
6Why should the world be over-wise,
7In counting all our tears and sighs?
8Nay, let them only see us, while
9 We wear the mask.
10We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
11To thee from tortured souls arise.
12We sing, but oh the clay is vile
13Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
14But let the world dream otherwise,
15 We wear the mask!
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“We Wear the Mask” Summary
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“We Wear the Mask” Themes
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Oppression, Racism, and Identity
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Empowerment and Resilience
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “We Wear the Mask”
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Lines 1-2
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— -
Line 3
This debt we pay to human guile;
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Lines 4-5
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties. -
Lines 6-7
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs? -
Lines 8-9
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask. -
Lines 10-11
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise. -
Lines 12-13
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile; -
Lines 14-15
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
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“We Wear the Mask” Symbols
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The Mask
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Clay
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“We Wear the Mask” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Extended Metaphor
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Refrain
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Enjambment
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Alliteration
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Consonance
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Rhetorical Question
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Allusion
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Caesura
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Assonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Apostrophe
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“We Wear the Mask” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Guile
- Myriad
- Subtleties
- Over-wise
- Nay
- Vile
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “We Wear the Mask”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“We Wear the Mask” Speaker
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“We Wear the Mask” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “We Wear the Mask”
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More “We Wear the Mask” Resources
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External Resources
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A Reading of "We Wear the Mask" — Listen to the poem read out loud.
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Dunbar's Life and Legacy — More information about Paul Laurence Dunbar's biography from the Poetry Foundation.
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Critiques of the Poem — An archive of scholarly critiques of "We Wear the Mask."
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Maya Angelou's Interpretation — Maya Angelou reads her adaptation of Dunbar's poem, which further expands upon the themes of black experience, coded language, and survival.
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More Poems by Dunbar — Access to more of the poet's literary work.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar
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