We Wear the Mask

“We Wear the Mask” is a timeless poem written in standard English with a clear rhyme scheme and familiar meter. In the poem, the collective speakers address an audience from behind a metaphorical “mask,” which becomes the reigning metaphor throughout the poem, representing the tactics marginalized communities must constantly perform in order to survive in an oppressive world.

The mask “grins and lies” (Line 1), hiding them behind a false sense of satisfaction or happiness, and as a result, a false sense of peace. The poem does not provide any identification for the speakers, who they are, or what race they belong to, making this poem particularly intriguing considering its place in history. The lack of recognition haunts the poem, adding weight to the “debt” the speakers pay to an undeserving collective who remain ignorant of their own “human gile” (Line 3).

While the poem does not reveal the true identity of the speakers, the extended metaphor of the mask provides a platform for the poem’s main concerns to come into play, such as themes of racism, oppression, identity, and