Literature III Poetry Assignment
I Choose the below poem and I have to answer the below question in 150 words.
Post a response of at least 150-200 words, focusing on the elements below.
· Identify the key images in the poem, which you believe are vital to understanding it.
· Provide a detailed discussion of how those images function in the poem.
· Do the images work together to form a coherent pattern?
· What ideas or feelings are conveyed by the images?
· How do the images contribute to the overall meaning of the poem?
We Wear the Mask
Paul Laurence Dunbar – 1872-1906
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 over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.
We smile, but oh 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!