Analysis of We Wear the Mask
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
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 overwise,
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!
| Scheme | aabbx aabC aabbaC |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
| Metre | 11011101 1110101101 11111101 11010111 011100100 110111 010110101 11110111 1101 111111101 11110101 11110111 011010101 1101110 1101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 502 |
| Words | 101 |
| Sentences | 6 |
| Stanzas | 3 |
| Stanza Lengths | 5, 4, 6 |
| Lines Amount | 15 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
| Words per line (avg) | 7 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 435 Views
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"We Wear the Mask" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28997/we-wear-the-mask>.
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