1. What images stand out to you in this poem? How do they make you feel?
-What stood out the most to me was the metaphor of the "doorways", even though it's something of a one-off metaphor and isn't really brought up again. It creates this sense of being hidden, of narrowness and suffocation, which really helps build an atmosphere of danger in the poem for me.
-There are also images related to the passing of time, specifically of daylight in "in the hours between dawns" and "when the sun rises . . . when the sun sets". Could it perhaps be to frame the subject of the poem in our everyday lives? I'm not to sure about this one, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it
.
-Another bit of imagery I found interesting was the juxtaposition between "mother's milk" and "weapon". The contrast between this image of comfort and that of violence and danger gives the poem this ambivalent, fragmented tone. When reading this bit, I always feel like such sharp contrasts make my awareness heighten, trying to figure out the incongruity going on there.
2. What do you think the poem's concluding lines mean? How does the poet build up to them (rhetorically speaking) throughout the previous stanzas? Consider the choice of imagery and perhaps also the implicit examples given.
-My interpretation of the final lines is that of an exhortation (albeit not a 'loud', shouty one) to speak out even in the face of fear. Lorde has an interesting way of saying this message that's very gritty and 'realistic' compared to some other poems I read. Basically instead of using moral grounds or emphasising the consequences of one's actions to convince the reader to be bold, she seems to make the case 'well, what to you have to lose?'.
I tried putting together this list to describe what I think is being done in each stanza in terms of how the speaker comes to their conclusion:
1. identifies the subject 'we' (marginalised people?) and creates
pathos
2. describes oppression, identified as cause
of suffering - "We were never
meant to survive."
3. describes the many fears of the subject, seems to equate one
to another in a list-like structure with a climax
"but when we are silent
we are still afraid"
4. Conclusion "So . . ." - logical/rational decision the speaker comes to, not to fear speaking out
Lorde also uses the repetition of phrases a lot, often similar phrases with just one or two words that changed, such as "love will vanish . . . love will never return". I think this sort of repeated syntactical structure gives a sense of sameness to a lot of the poem, but it is purposeful sameness in that it shows how uncertainty seems to permeate all aspects of life. This pervasive uncertainty is really important in why the speaker appears justified in coming to the conclusion they do, which is not only that they might as well speak out because nothing would be 'better' otherwise, but also coming to terms with an advantage that they have having survived so far.
3. Audre Lorde wrote about many of the social issues and injustices of her time, often in tandem with each other. Do you read social criticism in this particular poem? If so, is it more implicit or explicit to you? Do you find her way of presenting social issues effective?
- In this poem, Lorde seems to be presenting a lot of different social issues as interconnected with each other. For instance, I think "love in doorways coming and going" could be a reference to LGBTQ+ rights, as Lorde herself was a lesbian and this often comes up in her other poems. "passing dreams of choice" and "like bread in our children's mouths" are both images that seem to suggest socioeconomic inequality. However, many of the lines, especially in the third stanza, seem to avoid being specific. A lot of the underlying issues she might be referencing are described implicitly and seem to be left for the reader to judge, kind of like a secret code for her intended readership. I could easily see the following as applying to both of the above issues:
"when we are loved we are afraid
love will vanish
when we are alone we are afraid
love will never return"
-Overall, I find that the way Lorde presents social issues here is effective because of its intersectionality. By weaving in implicit references to various social issues while making mood and emotion the main focus, she produces a very human and holistic piece of work that avoids isolating the issue from its wider context. To me, at least, that makes a really effective protest poem.
