1 / 6

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar. WE WEAR THE MASKS Mikey M eacham . Paul Laurence Dunbar. Born on June 27, 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to gain national recognition His parents were freed slaves from Kentucky

vanig
Download Presentation

Paul Laurence Dunbar

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Paul Laurence Dunbar WE WEAR THE MASKS MikeyMeacham

  2. Paul Laurence Dunbar • Born on June 27, 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to gain national recognition • His parents were freed slaves from Kentucky • He was a fine student but financially he was unable to attend college and got a job as a elevator operator • In 1892, a former teacher invited him to read his poems at a meeting of the Western Association of Writers; his work impressed his audience to such a degree that the popular poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote him a letter of encouragement • In 1895 Dunbar’s poems started to appear in major national newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times

  3. Parapahse • The poem is about slaves working for land owners and how hard they work and how there is always work to do and no break. • The poem talks about oppressed black Americans forced to hide their pain and frustration behind masks • This poem also talks about blacks wearing masks not to show their true feelings towards their owners. • Also the poem is about slaves dreaming of slavery finally being abolished.

  4. Poetic devices An example of apostrophe- “We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries too thee from tortured souls. An example of personification- “with torn and bleeding hearts we smile”, “Too thee tortured souls arise Example of alliteration- “ With torn and bleeding hearts We smile and Mouth With Myriad subtleties”. Paradox- the poem wears a mask because it does not mention racial prejudice but the poem is about it

  5. Speaker and tone • The speaker is a slave living on a plantation that has been beaten down and wears a masks to hide his pain. • The attitude of the poem is helpless and depressed that the slaves will never get out of being worked to death. • He shows helplessness by using the verbs tears. Sighs, bleeding, hides

  6. We Wear The Masks • WE wear the mask that grins and lies, • It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— Alliteration • This debt we pay to human guile; • With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, Personification • And mouth with myriad subtleties. • Why should the world be over-wise, Apostrophe- lines 1 and 2 stanza 3 • In counting all our tears and sighs? • Nay, let them only see us, while Metaphor • 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!

More Related