All Wear Masks In African-American Poetry

Michael Hanson
ENG3520-01

Masks
We all wear masks. The mask is not always part of a costume or for a specific holiday. The masks we sometimes wear are to hide a part of us. Perhaps we are hiding our sadness at the death of loved one or our anger at some result. The mask might be to hide who we are to those that should not know our true selves. We can see masks in everything, from actors in moves to authors of books to writers of poetry.

These masks can take many forms as we see but this also extends to the characters in the poems and the poems themselves. What this means is that the writers of early African-American poetry had to hide their true selves, their true feelings, in order to get their poetry published. Early poetry,

How it hides what you truly want to say. Wearing a mask that outwardly shows compliance while truly hating everything about the situation. The African-American poet has a long history of poetry about freedom and hope and patriotism. When we consider that Africans were brought over as slaves and treated as a commodity, it is a little odd to see them write of patriotism and freedom. This was done so that the white publishers would allow their poetry to be printed. They coerced the white man with their words. This is a grand feat considering how they were treated in the 1800 's. To be able to convince a, most likely, slave owner to publish poetry written by a slave says a lot about the strength of the words. I believe that there is more than one way to use the patriotism and freedom. Just because you are not from the country you are in, one can indeed be patriotic towards the ideals that country was founded on even if the history of blacks in America is a history rich with strife and struggle. Patriotism is defined as a devotion to one 's country and concern for its defense. After a few generations of slaves have born and died in America they were no longer people brought from Africa. After a few generations they would be considered African-Americans and not just Africans.

African-American poets wrote some of the most emotional poetry. While the majority of their poetry was aimed at slaves, their messages can apply to anyone going through tough times. Their message can apply to anyone hiding their emotions and 'putting on a brave face ' as the saying goes. Their poetry 's message is hidden behind a