Paul Lawerance Essay

461 Words2 Pages
We Wear the Mask 1. What does the mask symbolize? The mask symbolizes skin color and the whole issue of racial discrimination. Wearing the mask refers to being perceived as different from everyone else, just because he is darker. 2. Could this poem apply to other people who are not African American? Explain your answer. Yes, it could apply to others who are not African-American, because there was also discrimination against people of other ethnicities and skin colors...they were all wearing masks, just like the African Americans in the poet's time period. The Haunted Oak - Analyzing details 1. What details does the poet reveal in the first stanza about the condition of the tree? The poet reveals that even though the oak tree is old and beautiful, and even casts a cool shade for him, the poet is scared of it and the memories it brings. 2. What causes the "gurgling moan" in line 10? The gurgling moan was caused by something in the throat. 3. Give three specific details that the author includes to appeal to our sense of sight, touch and hearing. Sight: Pray why are you so bare, so bare, The author gives the reader an image of a bare bough of an oak tree. Touch: I feel the rope against my bark and the weight of him in my grain. The reader can feel the pain of tree ad the rope is against its bark. Hearing: I shook with his gurgling moan. THe reader can imagine the sound of a gurgling moan. 4. Choose one of Dunbar's poems and look at the year it was written. I chose the poem "Life's Tragedy". The poem was written in 1902 when there was a rash of black lynching in the North in 1903. "Life's Tragedy" is still a true depiction of Dunbar's life about him facing racial discrimination but still striving to be the top. Dunbar had written this poem in such a manner that each stanza reflects his life at each stages and it is beautifully described with the
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