Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) was the first African American to gain national popularity as a poet. Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and the son of ex-slaves, Dunbar published his first poems in Dayton’s local newspaper, the Herald, in 1888. In 1891, when his formal schooling ended, he began work as an elevator operator, and he used this position to publicize and sell copies of his first collection of poetry, Oak and Ivy, which was written half in traditional verse and half in African American dialect. He gained international fame for his second book of poems, Majors and Minors (1896), and in his career he went on to publish ten more books of poetry, four short-story collections, five novels, and one play. He also wrote the lyrics for the first Broadway musical written and performed solely by African Americans. Titled In Dahomey, the musical appeared on Broadway in 1903 and became one of the most successful productions of the time period.

We Wear the Mask

“We Wear the Mask” is considered by many to be the best of Dunbar’s work. Published in 1895, it anticipates the concept of “the veil” that W. E. B. DuBois explores in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) and presages many seminal works by later African American writers, including the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (p. 1201).

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

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And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

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We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

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We wear the mask!

(1896)