"Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde was a proclaimed supporter of civil rights, homosexuality, feminism, often writing about one, if not more, into her works. Her main focus in writing was on poetry and essays which encapsulated her views and injustices she witnessed in the world. She is known for her strong use of pathos, or emotional appeal, in her pieces to express the fervor she had for the topic.

I am fourteen

and my skin has betrayed me

the boy I cannot live without

still sucks his thumb

in secret

how come my knees are

always so ashy

what if I die

before morning

and momma's in the bedroom

with the door closed.

I have to learn how to dance

in time for the next party

my room is too small for me

suppose I die before graduation

they will sing sad melodies

but finally

tell the truth about me

There is nothing I want to do

and too much

that has to be done

and momma's in the bedroom

with the door closed.

Nobody even stops to think

about my side of it

I should have been on Math Team

my marks were better than his

why do I have to be

the one

wearing braces

I have nothing to wear tomorrow

will I live long enough

to grow up

and momma's in the bedroom

with the door closed.

In order to understand the meaning of a poem, one must first determine the tone of the piece. Before one can decide on what the tone is, however, the speaker must be identified. “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde is a poem written in the first person point of view from the perspective of a fourteen year old girl, as stated in the first line, who seems overwhelmed by the conflicts she is having to face through puberty. She is the speaker. The style in which this work is written is a stream of consciousness. In other words, the poem is written as though it were directly the thoughts of the teenage girl. This is apparent from the sudden jumps between what she is thinking about and the lack of punctuation aside from the period at the end of each stanza. With the speaker now addressed, the tone can be accurately described as despondent and dismal. The main portion of the poem is the girl finding flaws with herself. Whether it is physical, not making a team, or even who she fell in love with, she is incredibly critical. Also in each of the three stanzas, the girl contemplates how people would be affected if she were to die, a topic no adolescent should have to consider. All of the stanzas conclude with the same two lines saying her mother is away in the bedroom. One way this could be interpreted is that her mother, being locked in the bedroom, is rarely a part of her life, and the lack of mention of her father means he also is not in her life. Lorde uses the thoughts of a distraught and depressed teenage girl to convey how hard a young girl is on herself, and how that is exacerbated in a broken home.