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We Wear The Mask Annotation Sheet

The document contains notes on poetic elements like "guile" and "myriad" and analyzes the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poem is about African Americans hiding their true feelings and pain behind a mask of smiles to the outside world due to the deception and subtleties they face from human cunning. It discusses how they smile and sing but cry out to Christ about their tortured souls and the difficulties they face while putting on a mask for the world.

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Algren Alcalde
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105 views2 pages

We Wear The Mask Annotation Sheet

The document contains notes on poetic elements like "guile" and "myriad" and analyzes the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The poem is about African Americans hiding their true feelings and pain behind a mask of smiles to the outside world due to the deception and subtleties they face from human cunning. It discusses how they smile and sing but cry out to Christ about their tortured souls and the difficulties they face while putting on a mask for the world.

Uploaded by

Algren Alcalde
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NOTES ON POETIC ELEMENTS ____________________________________

__________
guile – sly or cunning intelligence
myriad – a countless or extremely great
NOTES ON THE MESSAGE OF THE POEM
number
____________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________ We Wear the Mask ____________________________________
____________________________________ BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
__________________________________A_ We wear the mask that grins and lies, ____________________________________
__________________________________A_ It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— ____________________________________
__________________________________B_ This debt we pay to human guile; ____________________________________
_________________________________B With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, ____________________________________
__________________________________C_ And mouth with myriad subtleties. ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
___________________________________A Why should the world be over-wise, ____________________________________
___________________________________A In counting all our tears and sighs? ____________________________________
___________________________________B Nay, let them only see us, while ____________________________________
___________________________________C We wear the mask. ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
___________________________________A We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries ____________________________________
___________________________________A To thee from tortured souls arise. ____________________________________
___________________________________B We sing, but oh the clay is vile ____________________________________
___________________________________B Beneath our feet, and long the mile; ____________________________________
___________________________________A But let the world dream otherwise, ____________________________________
___________________________________C We wear the mask! ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________ ____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________

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