Compare and contrast the literary elements of Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" and Langston Hughes's "Harlem"

The reason for pairing these two poems isn't immediately clear to me, but I suppose the two poems are related in how they address a central theme:  how do we (esp. "we" in reference to black people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries) respond to the painful parts of life?

In addressing this theme, both poems make heavy use of figurative language, but they don't always use the same literary elements. Dunbar's poem seems to rely more on metaphor (esp. in the central image of the mask) whereas Hughes' poem is structured around similes (all but one of the comparisons are introduced with the word "like").

The diction of the poems is very different and may be one point of contrast that you can develop. The vocabulary in Hughes' poem is simple and concrete in comparison to that of Dunbar's. Dunbar even uses the archaic form "thee."

A good point of comparison and contrast may be the form of the poems. Both poems use end rhyme, but Hughes' poem is much more loosely structured; it's written in free verse and doesn't use a clearly measured number of syllables per line. Read the lines of both poems aloud, slowly and clearly but in a natural speaking voice, and you'll hear the difference in form.