Masks By Shel Silverstein Essay

Shel Silverstein was an American screenwriter, author for children’s books, and a poet who wrote the poem Masks. In the poem Silverstein explains how two “lost souls” (Story Behind the Poem) could’ve had each other and they “passed right by”(Masks, line 7) but they hid themselves. Despite the fact that they shared a connection, both of the characters were too self-conscious to display who they truly and actually are. If you want true love, you shouldn’t be afraid of being your true self.

Masks was written as a rhyme scheme poem. The whole poem is written in A, A-Slant, B, C, and D. Masks is written in iambic dimeter. Iambic dimeter has a pattern that’s unstressed and then it goes to stressed. “She had blue skin” (Masks, line 1) is a good example of iambic dimeter.”She had blue skin”, “they searched for blue” In these lines, which are lines 1 and lines 5, the word “blue” is repeated which makes it a refrain. The word blue also represents sadness and it’s emphasizing that the poem is depressing and unhappy. The poem is also identified as a dramatic irony because the readers know that they “passed right by” but the characters never knew that they missed out their chance of true love.
Both of the characters were afraid of rejection so they covered up who they really are.”He kept it hid and so did she” (1.3) implies that they both had a fake identity and were pretending to be someone that doesn’t exist. Both of the characters were so ashamed of showing the world who they really are that they gave everyone this fake persona. They both were in such fear of rejection because of their flaws and imperfections. The characters did not want to open up to society in a vulnerable state in fear that someone else would just end up taking advantage and use