American Literature / Unit 12 AML 1126 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"We Wear the Mask"
Captions available
The idea
The poem says the mask grins and lies, hiding cheeks and shading eyes, and that the world need not be over-wise in counting their tears and sighs. Written in standard English and a tight rhymed form, it describes the performance his dialect poems were bought for.
In practice
A grin that hides the face behind it.
Where people slip
The formal poem comments on the dialect ones.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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