The true

Some I hate, my life alhumahulah blessed even though I can't see where my life is going.Sarah Elgohary                            professor Pramila Venkateswarn 

American Literature English 204                    9/7/12 

`                    Focus paper 2

Yes, I think there is a common theme of intolerance and disrespect in all three poems. In    Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask", Frost's "Mending Wall" and Lowell's "September, 1918 There are universal messages about human dilemmas and thoughts in our society the authors are trying to show their readers that intolerance is a result of people’s inability to resolve all of the conflicts they face in the world by working together with each other united The poems prove one of humanity’s biggest dilemmas we should be united, but instead people live as if they are divided. This is because people often are too focused on each other’s outside appearances, and differences that they develop a fear of people not like them. As a result of this fear people never really get to know what is in each other hearts their opinions, beliefs that is why is people are always fighting, there will always be and there will never truly be world peace. People need to learn to accept each other differences if we all learn to do that the world would be a better place to live. These are the messages shown all three poems in    Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask", Frost's "Mending Wall" and Lowell's "September, 1918. Yes there emotionally evocative in all three poems especially in Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask”. In Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask Dunbar’s tone is despair sadness anger- There are two famous sayings that I think relate to in Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask” You can't judge a book by its cover" and "Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes". A person may appear one way on the outside but may be feeling the total opposite on the inside. He may be masking his true emotions with a false appearance. In "We Wear the Mask" it seems that Paul Laurence Dunbar is conveying this message to his audience.

 The poem starts with Dunbar speaking for the entire black community. He expresses his anger of having to hide his emotions. When they are being lynched and discriminated against, they are forced to take it and mask their true emotions with a smile. In the third stanza, Dunbar tells of how they try crying to Christ for help. The rest of the world, however, ignored their cries and were not aware of the black community’s struggle for equal rights. The last line of the poem shows Dunbar realization that their efforts are not working, and they will continue to have to “wear the mask”. African Americans wear masks to hide their true identify  just like a barrier from the whites as if there is a wall keeping African Americans from while society. 

The message in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall “is similar to Dunbar “We Wear the “Mask/ African American had to “wear masks” to hide their identity during segregation. They were  divided by a “ Wall” ( a barrier) between the white and blacks because African American have different skin color .so what we are humans equal .The whites were afraid of them so whites did not embrace their differences so as a result , whites were ignorant and intolerant.. 

In the poem itself, Frost creates two distinct characters that have different ideas about what exactly makes a person a good neighbor. As the narrator points out, the very act of mending the wall seems to be in opposition to nature. Every year, stones are dislodged and gaps suddenly appear, all without explanation. Every year, the two neighbors fill the gaps and replace the fallen boulders, only to have parts of the wall fall over again in the coming months. It seems as if nature is attempting to destroy the barriers that man has created on the land, even as man continues to repair the barriers, simply out of habit and tradition.  The narrator does not understand why there need to be a wall between them in the first place. He thinks the wall is unnecessary; he does want to be divided from his neighbor. “Mending Wall” is a metaphor that represents fact that people cannot overcome their differences because there are too many obstacles in the way. People are so consumed by fear that they have forgotten what it means to have tolerance for each other anymore. They do not even attempt to reach out to take each other hands to demolish the (barrier) of differences between people so humanity can live united people need to embrace each other differences in order to have a sense of tolerance for others This is shown in Robert Frost “Mending Wall because the narrator wants to be friends with neighbor from the very beginning, but the neighbors friendship did not start to develop until the wall is removed.

Ultimately, the presence of the wall between the properties does ensure a quality relationship between the two neighbors. By maintaining the division between the properties, the narrator and his neighbor are able to maintain their individuality and personal identity as farmers: one of apple trees, and one of pine trees. Moreover, the annual act of mending the wall also provides an opportunity for the two men to interact and communicate with each other, an event that might not otherwise occur in an isolated rural environment. The act of meeting to repair the wall allows the two men to develop their relationship “(Vincent, Caitlin. Jordan Reid Berkow ed. *Robert Frost: Poems Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of "Mending Wall" (1914)*. GradeSaver, 12 May 2009://www.gradesaver.com/the-poetry-of-robert-frost/study-guide/section3). 

"September, 1918" by Amy Lowell is interesting. This piece has a dual aura: The first stanza presents a positive and blissful feeling; and the second stanza presents darkness with the reference of war. One theme that overshadows this poem is the autumn climate. This is quite interesting because autumn represents the fall season. Metaphorically, the climate of autumn/fall may symbolize two things:  the fallen soldiers, and the ending of the war. Therefore, these two theories (mainly the fallen soldiers) will be interconnected in some way with the fall season .As a reader begins to read the first stanza, no reference of war is mentioned. Instead, everything is blissful. Literally, nothing in the first stanza indicates that a dark cloud would follow, because it is so delightful. The opening of the poem depicts a bright and colorful atmosphere. For example, the first three lines are as follows:

This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight;
The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves;

There is no denying that these three lines present a pleasant feeling, and illustrate the fall season motif. The sun is shining, the trees are sparkling, and everything shines vividly. Yes, everything looks great on the surface, but words like "falling," "tumbling," "dropped" have a war-like feeling to them.

The euphoric nature of the poem continues as the speaker sees two boys in the park, under a tree. They are lying on their faces, meticulously gathering red berries that has already fallen on the ground to put them in a box. At this moment everything looks great on the surface. However, is the speaker really happy? Is everything really blissful? According to the opening line in stanza two, no, because it states the following in line 9: "Some day there will be no war."At this time in history, World War 1 was going on, and the date embedded with the title of the poem verifies that. This brings more sense to stanza one, because although it shows a delightful aura, it is also surrounded with war themes. For example stanza one has these words: "falling," "tumbling," and "dropped." In war, soldiers fall, tumble, and drop. Metaphorically speaking, these words can serve as fallen soldiers, for that is the outcome of war. Nonetheless, the speaker tries to put on a happy face and enjoy the autumn  season.