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Dunbar wrote “We Wear the Mask” in iambic tetrameter, which is typical for the rondeau verse form he used to construct the poem. The rondeau was first developed by troubadours in medieval France, who used the form for songs. Like other song forms, such as ballad, the rondeau typically features a four-beat line. Dunbar’s poem follows this trend in its use of iambic tetrameter, which is a meter that consists of four iambic feet per line. (Recall that an iamb has two syllables in an unstressed–stressed pattern, such as in the word “be-neath.”) In general, the poem features a very strict use of iambic tetrameter. Other than the refrain, “We wear the mask” (lines 9 and 15), which has just two metrical feet, all the lines in the poem have four feet. And aside from two notable deviations from iambic rhythm, the meter is perfectly regular. Such rhythmic regularity is appropriate for a song form. In the case of Dunbar’s poem, however, the near-perfect regularity may also be interpreted as a kind of formal “mask.” In contrast to the turbulent emotions expressed by the words, the regular meter provides a semblance of stability that only exists on the poem’s surface.

Both the first and last stanzas of the poem follow a perfectly regular iambic rhythm. The middle stanza, by contrast, introduces a couple of slight variations (lines 6–9):

     Why should | the world | be o- | ver-wise,
     In count- | ing all | our tears | and sighs?
     Nay, let | them on- | ly see | us, while
            We wear | the mask.

Note how the first line opens not with an iamb but a trochee, which has a stressed–unstressed pattern. The introduction of a trochee here provides a pleasing rhythmic variation, since it creates a subtle syncopation before returning to an iambic flow. But this deviation is also notable for the way it signals the beginning of a rhetorical question. The slight metrical variance places added emphasis on the question the speaker asks. Another variation in rhythm appears in the third line. This line likewise opens with a trochee, but it also ends with a trochee. Though some readers might prefer to scan this line differently, the comma that comes before “while” strongly suggests that emphasis should be placed on “us.” Scanning the meter in this way helps underscore the double meaning of the speaker’s plea. Though on the surface they want others to see them only while they wear the mask, the added emphasis on “us” subtly suggests they want others to see the real them—that is, the person behind the mask.

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