We Wear the Mask

“We Wear the Mask” is a rondeau, which is a French form originally set to music. Rondeaus contain three stanzas, a set rhyme scheme, and a refrain. The poem’s rhyme scheme is AABBA AABC AABBAC. The title is also the refrain in the poem, which appears at the end of Stanzas 2 and 3 and are not part of the perfect rhymes in the previous lines.

The poem’s meter mimics standard English, set in iambic tetramer, an unstressed-stressed pattern, with each line containing eight syllables. Again, the refrains break from the rule at four syllables. This makes the refrains stand out even more.

Even though the poem’s subject matter and language describe pain and suffering, the rhyme and meter give off a tone of cheer and playfulness. This gives the poem the effect that it is also wearing its own mask.

The clearest and most visible device employed in the poem is the use of the extended metaphor, the metaphor a particular poem is built upon. The mask in the poem is not a literal mask, but rather, a metaphor for the strategy employed in order to get around