selection focus 2-1 literary elements trans. 2-1
TRANSCRIPT
• To read and analyze two poems about the African American experience in late nineteenth-century America
• To identify and analyze the elements of a sonnet
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Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in 1872 and died in 1906.
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The Poet’s Twin MasksPaul Laurence Dunbar wrote two kinds of poetry. Although he was known and loved for his sentimental verse, written in dialect, about an idyllic, pastoral, pre-Civil War plantation life, he has sometimes been criticized for this work and for failing to confront the issues of racial stereotypes and discrimination. However, Dunbar also produced poems in Standard English that meditate on love, nature, or death; express pride in African Americans; or lament thwarted efforts to live and create freely.
BACKGROUND
Sketch It!Draw pictures showing different faces you might “wear” in different situations.
FOCUS ACTIVITYDo you sometimes feel that you have to “wear” more than one face? Are you one person at home, another at school, and yet another when you are out with friends?
Setting a PurposeRead “We Wear the Mask” to understand why some people show different faces at different times.
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A Active Reading
Question
A B C D
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What does the speaker tell Douglass in the first two lines of the poem?
He tells him that life is more “evil” now than it was during Douglass’s time.
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StyleTo create rhyme and meter, many poets use inverted sentences–sentences that do not use the usual subject-predicate-direct object word order.
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Author’s Craft
Restate line 3 in standard word order.
We pay this debt to human guile.
B
RhymeThe rhyming of “subtleties” with “lies” and “eyes” is an example of near rhyme, in which the last syllable in one word almost rhymes with the last syllable of another.
Literary ElementsC
Interpret
What words or phrases are repeated in the poem?
The line “We wear the mask” and the words “we smile” are repeated.
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Active Reading
What is the effect of this repetition?
This repetition emphasizes that people smile to hide their anguish.
D
Personal Response
Analyzing Literature
Literary Elements
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PERSONAL RESPONSEWhich lines in these poems had the greatest emotional impact on you? Explain your choices.
Summarize what the speaker tells Douglass about the present time. How does the present compare with Douglass’s time? Explain.
He tells him they have fallen on “evil days” that are worse than those Douglass lived through. The terrible storm that began in Douglass’s time did not end; it only grew worse.
RECALL AND INTERPRET
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What does the speaker wish that Douglass could do? What does this wish seem to suggest about the problems of the present?
The speaker wishes Douglass could return and lead people through this terrible time. This wish suggests that Dunbar feels there are no strong leaders in his time.
RECALL AND INTERPRET
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What extended metaphor does the speaker use? Evaluate how well this metaphor represents the struggle the speaker is describing.
He uses the metaphor of a violent storm representing the struggle for civil rights. A wave is a powerful and violent force; Dunbar wishes that Douglass’s voice could be heard in this struggle and that he could guide the movement (“thy strong arm to guide the shivering bark”).
EVALUATE AND CONNECT
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Do you think the theme, or central message, of the poem is relevant today? Why or why not?
Possible answer: Strong leadership is always necessary. The message is relevant.
EVALUATE AND CONNECT
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What words does the speaker use to describe the mask? Who wears the mask, and why must it be worn?
He describes the mask that “grins,” “lies,” and “hides.” African Americans wear the mask to hide their suffering from the world.
RECALL AND INTERPRET
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What reality is hidden behind the mask? What words and images describe that reality?
RECALL AND INTERPRET
The mask hides a grim reality, described by the words “tears and sighs” and by the images “torn and bleeding hearts,” “vile” clay beneath their feet, and the “long” mile.
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Do you “wear” different faces by choice, or are you forced to do so? Explain.
EVALUATE AND CONNECT
Possible answer: Society forces us to wear certain faces because we must act appropriately in different situations.
EVALUATE AND CONNECT
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Why do you think Dunbar wrote this poem in Standard English rather than in dialect? How does this choice reinforce the speaker’s theme?
His use of Standard English can be seen as a mask to hide his pain and conform to a white society.
• “Douglass” is a Petrarchan, or Italian, sonnet, which consists of two stanzas.
• The first stanza, an octave, contains eight lines and presents a situation, a question, or an idea; it is usually rhymed abbaabba.
• The second stanza, a sestet, contains six lines and provides a resolution, an answer, or a comment; it is usually rhymed cdecde or cdcdcd.
• A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem typically written in iambic pentameter–a pattern of five stresses per line, each unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
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What situation or problem is presented in the first stanza of “Douglass”?
The “evil days” of fighting, hatred, and disagreement are described in the first stanza.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
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What resolution is wished for in the second stanza?
Dunbar wishes the fighting could be resolved by the power of Douglass’s voice.
LITERARY ELEMENTS
The speaker makes an impassioned plea to John Milton, lamenting the detestable conditions in England.
Wordsworth pays homage to Milton’s poetic virtue, and the speaker explains how Milton could save England from the ills that plague it.
have ridden
has given
have paid
have worn