Paul Laurence Dunbar – Douglass and We Wear the Mask

Douglass was an interesting poem to try and understand, because I found it challenging to try and interpret all of the meanings from the poem. Although it was a shorter poem, the meaning of the poem itself was confusing to me. However, what I was able to gather from it is that there used to be somewhat "evil" days, and now that they are into those days then the people are going to have to try and get through those times. The second stanza says,

"Now, when the waves of swift dissension swarm,
And Honour, the strong pilot, lieth stark,
Oh, for thy voice high-sounding o'er the storm,
For thy strong arm to guide the shivering bark,
The blast-defying power of thy form,
To give us comfort through the lonely dark" (Dunbar 570).

From that stanza I got the feeling of romanticism because it just seems to have that sort of feeling to it. I have noticed that is a common theme throughout these last few stories and poems. I could not really tell who exactly the hero was, but I gathered it was probably the characters and how they are trying to rise above the evil. However, because romanticism is not one of the topics we can discuss, I think that this poem shows naturalism above all, because the people are trying to fight against an evil.

Everyone, whether they realize it or not, wears a mask. Superheros such as Batman, Green Lantern, and Darth Vader even, all wear masks, but for completely different reasons. Dunbar says in his poem that, "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" (Dunbar 571).

Romanticism is still displayed through this poem as well. I believe that these two poems were written at the beginning of the realism period, so realism was still a fairly new concept. However, this poem has a naturalism feel to it because Dunbar is talking about people and how they are hiding behind a mask, regardless of what is going on. The character in the story is hiding behind the mask so that people will not see their tears, or the real them. They will just know the person who wears the mask, and not the person the character actually wants them to know. Therefore, it is like the character is crying for help, because they are tired of acting like someone else, and want poeple to know the real them, not the person behind the mask.

Both of those poems show realism, but also naturalism because they deal with natural instances and occurances in life. Everyone has to deal with evils in their life, like Dunbar is talking about in the first poem, and then nearly everyone also wears a mask regardless of who they are, like in the second poem. So, people are able to relate to these poems because Dunbar seems to be able to get to his audience, and help them understand the meaning of his poems.

Works Cited:

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "Douglass" American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 570. Print.

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. "We Wear the Mask" American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 571. Print.