The unnamed speakers of “We Wear the Mask” are concerned with the image of the mask that reemerges throughout the poem. They spend much of the poem considering how much choice they have in the matter of wearing the mask. On the one hand, their external world, based on discriminatory practices, forces them to wear the mask as a “debt we pay to human guile” (4). On the other hand, in the face of the clear lack of choice, the speakers attempt to regain some of the agency that has been taken away from them. To that end, they claim the mask for themselves, essentially internalizing it and attempting to position it as a chosen experience to protect their own vulnerabilities: “Why should the world be over-wise, / In counting all our tears and sights?” (6-7).

The speakers also subtly push for the need to find a solution to...