English - College Literature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

English - College Literature - Essay ExampleThe tone of despair and anger underlines a theme of out of sight suffering, where people cover up their feelings, only expressing them in prayer, We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries / To thee from tortured souls arise. (1. 0-11). The speaker is not definable as male or female, progeny or old, but has a voice that could open to many, as the poet shares the suffering experiences across a whole range of humanity, evidenced by the use of we.The fable of the mask that grins and lies, (l. 1) and the reason for using this protection, Nay, let them only see us while / We wear the mask (l. 8-9), signified how people may hurt inner for many reasons but want to hide the pain. It seemed to be a matter of pride, as in why should the world be over-wise, / In counting in all our tears and sighs? (l. 6-7), to keep the suffering hidden. Dunbar was a child of slaves and he understood the suffering of slavery. But the concept of covering up our pai n can apply to anyone the mask is a symbol of the human need to protect itself.Often, at school or hanging out with friends, somebody can say something hurtful, peradventure as a joke, so we smile or laugh in response, pretending not to be vulnerable and covering up our hurt. The poet expressed incisively how much we hurt and how the pretence can damage us. He makes us feel others pain and relate it to our own, and maybe realize that if we engineer off the mask, we could suffer less and become stronger.Incident, with the simple, repetitive rhythms of a childs sung rhyme and point of view, gives a difference posture on how people hurt each other. The boy speaker, most likely the poet, recalled a childhood memory with an ironic tone that suggests he had risen in a higher place that experience. Though the poem reads like a child telling a story, with true rhyme such as glee (l. 2) and me (l. 4), bigger (1. 6) and nigger (l. 8), its nitty-gritty is stark. The theme of racism and i ts