Douglass and We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote both “Douglass” and “We Wear the Mask” at the end of the 19th century. Both poems address issues and struggles that African Americans faced at that time. Write a poem of your own in which you address a contemporary social or political issue that interests you. You could write your poem in rhyme, using the rhyme scheme in Dunbar’s poems as a model. Or you could write your poem in free verse and use some of Dunbar’s other poetic devices as a model. For example, you could use figurative language such as personification.