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A Comparison Of Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

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Poetry is a unique art form as it usually captures the feelings of a particular individual. Therefore, two poems with the same genre and similar themes can have substantial differences. On the other hand, verses that seem different can share striking resemblances. To compare and contrast two poems, this essay example will focus on the message they carry.“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is a poem written by Langston Hughes during the Harlem Renaissance. It was 1921, and the young Hughes was just adding his voice to the plight of the African Americans at the time. “We Wear the Mask” is a piece by the famous author and activist Laurence Dunbar. The lyrical poem was written twenty-five years before Hughes published “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” By …show more content…

On the other hand, “We Wear the Mask” is a poem by one of the first African American writers to be accorded a national accolade for his work. Dunbar explores the coping mechanisms of the African Americans during their struggles. Both poems address issues that happen in the same period. Dunbar’s poem was published at the turn of the century shortly after slavery was outlawed. This period was expected to be a victorious time for African Americans and everyone assumed that they were happy. “We Wear the Mask” disputes this idea and presents an argument that happiness among the African American population was a façade. According to Dunbar, deep inside, African Americans have ‘torn and bleeding hearts’. The message in this poem is not direct and it is in line with the situation in the ground. When this poem was written, the fight for equal rights among African Americans had not started in earnest. Instead, the struggle for equal rights was just bubbling under the …show more content…

Dunbar digs deeper into the issue by claiming that most of the population at the time was hiding behind religion to avoid confronting the issues of inequality. In addition, the speaker accuses the African American population of misleading the rest of the population about their actual feelings.Langston Hughes’ poem has a more melancholic tone. Hughes wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” twenty-five years after Dunbar’s poem was written. Hughes’ poem uses a different approach to address the African American issues of the time. His poem highlights the pride of origin that African Americans have. The speaker in this poem speaks proudly about his rich history and heritage and how it is closely connected to some mighty rivers around the world. Unlike Dunbar, Hughes does not hide the message of his poem. This is mostly because there was no need for indirect messages after the Civil Rights Movement had already taken shape. Hughes took time out of the equal rights struggles of the African Americans to reflect on this population’s prolific

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“We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-.” This quote is from the poem, “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar which is a poem about the struggle that Paul Laurence Dunbar’s family went through during their lives being enslaved. This quote represents the role that a mask can play in covering up true self. By wearing a mask, a person is covering up their unique features. Also, they are not letting anyone get to know them as well as hiding their persona from the public.

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As I read, Paul L. Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” I was interested in how he described what a mask represents. It is true that a mask was used to hide a person’s pain, emotion, or mood before the day known as Halloween developed. I love how Paul refers the use of the masks as a black or white person’s escape from other peoples’ worried faces. No one can ever understand what someone else is going through. People can never truly speak their truth or let out their suffering.

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Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "We Wear the Mask," delivers a poignant message in fifteen brief lines. On one hand, the poem pays tribute to the historical struggles of African-Americans. Specifically, Dunbar explores the thought that many African-Americans disguised their true feelings during the racially tumultuous period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. His moving words suggest that the African-American community of this time often wore "the mask that grins and lies" to avoid drawing unwanted attention to themselves.

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Such personification mirrors Dunbar’s use of figurative language, which relates the poems in more ways than one. Dunbar touches on human features such as cheeks and eyes in his poem but also uses a spiritual element to advance his point of view. Furthermore, “We Wear the Mask” was written in 1896; a period in American history that was post-slavery but still had widespread discrimination. The spiritual connotation within Dunbar’s poem can allude to African American churches and/or the hymns slaves sung on plantations. Nevertheless, the struggle of African Americans is a symbol of both presented

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In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” the speaker wears a mask to hide his internal suffering because he does not want the rest of the world to think he is weak. This poem relates the prejudice black people face against white people. The speaker starts the poem with the lines, “We wear the mask that grins and lies,” (1). Here he describes the kind of “masks” that he wears.

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To begin, I chose the poem “We Wear Mask '' written by Paul Laurence Dunbar to represent how collaboration and community bring out the best in people. First The poem shows how the Black community tries to wear mask because they scared to show their identity. They were scared to show them there true self because they knew the white community wouldn’t respect them because of there color. Not only that they knew that the white community didn’t respect them for who they are

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The mask is thus a metaphor for social performance by African- American’s to avoid the consequences associated with telling the truth about their experiences with racial injustice and their feelings about it. The mask wearer is portrayed as having to pretend they are content when they had no reason to be so in the existing social context and this emphasizes the significance of the mask as a tool of survival Dunbar’s piece begins with: “We wear the mask that grins and lies / it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,”- this is quickly an indicator that this mask is a device used by its

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In the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar, shows how we wear a mask to hide our true selves from the rest of society. You may be thinking why would you wanna hide your true self if you are one that doesn't do this type of social masking. Although you will understand Dunbar if you, yourself have done this before. In todays society many feel the obligation to always be okay so we have to wear this mask.

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As Brown suggests that the poem relates to gay male identities, Johnson claims “no matter what ethnicity “we wear we will all wear the mask”(Johnson 1). The difference between the 2 poems is that one only talks about 1 race but the other doesn’t bring race into it. Johnson says that “We wear the mask to disguise the hurt,” the hurt and pain that lives in our lives (Johnson 2). Johnson uses the poem through his sermon at Light of the World Christian Church. He references the poem to christ.

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Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" is a powerful poem that addresses the complexities of identity, oppression, and the human experience. Through the use of vivid imagery, symbolism, and metaphor, Dunbar explores the ways in which individuals are forced to conceal their true selves in order to navigate the societal norms and expectations of the world around them. The opening stanza of the poem sets the stage for the metaphorical mask that is worn by the speaker and those around them: "We wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.

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The culture of most blacks was unwanted during this time. For this reason Hughes desired to make a change and illustrate such cultural identities in his poems. In doing this he caused a shift in ideas among all people. Although the change didn’t happen immediately it did eventually occur. With that said the African American people were given less of an opportunity at jobs, schooling, and most importantly culture.

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We Wear the Mask: Paul Laurence Dunbar Rating: ★★★★ Dunbar opens his poem by stating how he and others wear masks that “grins and lies.” They hide what they truly feel under a mask of smiles. He conveys how they hide their sorrows from the world and that they do not deserve to know their true feelings. He continues expressing this feeling of sadness and torture that is covered and hidden from the world by faking a sense of joy through singing, smiles, and lies. To start off, I really liked how the author picked a subject that can be relatable in many people’s lives.

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The idea of a veil or a mask is described throughout many black writers, because it is such a shared and common feeling among them. In Paul Dunbar's poem “We Wear the Masks” he explains how black people wear masks that hides their true feeling “We wear the mask that grins and lies,... With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And a mouth with myriad subtleties... We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries. To thee from tortured souls arise.”

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Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

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