A Litany for Survival

“A Litany for Survival” is written in free verse and divided into four stanzas. Lorde uses the collective first person throughout the poem. Lorde repeats the phrase “those of us” (Lines 1, 15), and the pronoun “we” (throughout Stanza 3) to describe a collective of marginalized peoples. Not only is the speaker part of marginalized groups (Lorde was a Black Marxist lesbian), but the audience for the poem is also marginalized people. The speaker addresses people who are similar to her about their shared experiences.

In the first stanza, marginalization is described in terms of existing in liminal spaces. Liminal means a boundary or a threshold, such as the “shoreline” (Line 1), a boundary between land and water, and “doorways” (Line 6), the boundaries between private residences and public spaces. The shoreline is used metaphorically to compare the literal liminal space where water meets land and “the constant edges of decision” (Line 2). People who are marginalized must decide which of their “crucial” (Line 3) basic needs they can meet and which they have to sacrifice, such as only being able to pay for rent or pay for food. They cannot splurge, or “indulge” (Line 4), on luxuries. These luxuries include “passing dreams of choice” (Line 5). Being marginalized means having fewer choices. For instance, class, race, and gender can all limit a person’s ability to obtain housing. Marginalized individuals have fewer housing options, and very limited choices.

Lorde continues to develop the motif of the liminal in the first stanza by listing other spaces that marginalized people exist between. Some of these spaces are temporal (time-based), including the “hours between dawns” (Line 7), and “at once before and after” (Line 9). The time-based liminality that marginalized people face on a regular basis is “before and after” (Line 9) death. The time after death is the time of legacy, or what people can leave for the next generation. Lorde writes that the collective she belongs to is “seeking a now that can breed / futures / like bread in our children’s mouths” (Lines 10-12). The current moment is focused on creating a future world in which people don’t go hungry. Lorde uses a simile (makes a direct comparison) to compare bread and this utopian future. Bread represents sustenance and food security (as opposed to food insecurity).

However, Lorde argues that there must be more than sustenance—there must also be the possibility to dream. Lorde’s collective seeks to provide nourishment, so the next generation’s “dreams will not reflect / the death of ours” (Lines 13-14). Once someone’s basic needs are met, they can dream of more in life. Combining bread and dreams recalls the popular labor slogan created by Rose Schneiderman: “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too” (Rohan, Liz. “The Worker Must Have Bread, But She Must Have Roses, Too.” The Educational Work of Women’s Organizations, 1890-1960. Eds. Anne Meis Knupfer and Christine Woyshner. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2008). Here, Lorde expresses a similar sentiment—that marginalized people, including the lower class, deserve to have dreams.

In the second stanza, Lorde discusses the fear that is instilled by a lack of safety among marginalized people. The motifs of food and time continue with “learning to be afraid with our mother’s milk” (Line 18). Milk, like bread, is a basic form of sustenance, and one that is free when it comes from a biological lactating parent. Furthermore, lactation and nursing point to a specific time in a child’s life. Lorde uses the imagery of milk to describe how fear is learned from a very young age. She also juxtaposes infancy with old age in this stanza. Lorde writes about how marginalized people “were imprinted with fear / like a faint line in the center of our foreheads” (Lines 16-17). This simile compares an embodiment of fear and aging. Lines in the forehead are considered a sign of old age and worry. Being marginalized and fearing for your life causes children to grow up too fast. They are old when they are young, or in a liminal space between youth and old age.

Additionally, the second stanza includes descriptions of the oppressors of the marginalized collective and the oppressors’ intentions. These people are “the heavy-footed” (Line 21). Here, Lorde alludes to the idiom of treading carefully, which means to act cautiously. Being “heavy-footed” (Line 21) is the opposite of treading carefully. People with privilege and power do not have to worry where they are stepping—in other words, they do not have to be cautious and on alert. These people use the “illusion of safety” (Line 20) as a weapon. Marginalized people can be harmed if they believe they are safe when they are not. The most poignant example of this is the illusion of safety offered by the police, who are supposed to serve and protect. However, the police can be viewed as a part of the powerful and privileged group that often uses excessive and disproportionate violence to “silence us” (Line 21). The pronoun “us” is the collective group of marginalized people to which the speaker belongs. Lorde continues: “For all of us […] We were never meant to survive” (Lines 22, 24). The ultimate way to silence someone is to kill them or ensure that they don’t survive. The word survive appears at the heart, or center, of the poem. This diction and placement emphasize how Concerns About Legacy and Survival are a central theme.

In the third stanza, Lorde lists some of the fears that marginalized people must face on a regular basis. The device of listing, or cataloging, emphasizes how fears accumulate and multiply. Furthermore, Lorde describes how both a thing and its inverse, a dichotomy, induce fear. The sun rising causes the collective to fear that “it might not remain” (Line 26). Its inverse, the sun setting, causes the collective to fear that “it might not rise in the morning” (Line 28). Both aspects, rising and setting, are frightening because marginalized people lack the security of having their basic needs met. So, they fear that all basic things needed to live, like the sun, can be taken away and not returned. Another dichotomy is how stomachs being full and stomachs being empty are both frightening. The former causes fears of “indigestion” (Line 30). This refers to how people of lower socioeconomic classes sometimes cannot afford nutritious food in the United States. They can only afford food that will upset their stomachs. The latter fear of stomachs being empty is the more obvious fear of going hungry. By including both fears, Lorde emphasizes how tenuous life is for marginalized people.

The list of fears continues with fears about dichotomies of love and speaking. Lorde explores how being in love comes with fears that “love will vanish” (Line 34), and how being alone comes with fears that “love will never return” (Line 36). The collective is afraid of losing what they have and never having it again. In other words, they feel like they can only hold things temporarily and they are not given opportunities to get them back. Going back to the motif of time, members of the working class must spend their time working, rather than loving. This stands in stark contrast with how members of the upper class who have generational wealth have the free time to work on their current relationship or pursue a new one.

The final dichotomy that evokes fear among marginalized people is speaking and being silent. Lorde echoes the “silence” (Line 21) from the second stanza in the third stanza. When her collective is “silent / we are still afraid” (Lines 40-41). The silence that the privileged and powerful hope for in stanza two will not ease the fears of marginalized people. Silence is frightening because doing what the oppressors want will not guarantee the oppressed safety or security. On the other hand, speaking is also frightening. Marginalized people, like Lorde, fear that their “words will not be heard” (Line 38). People in power often intentionally ignore or misunderstand the words of marginalized people.

The fourth and final stanza repeats previous lines about speaking and surviving. This is a shorter stanza, similar to the formal device of an envoy, which concludes Lorde’s poem. The concluding stanza begins with “So” (Line 42), a conjunction that indicates she is taking a final position. Before this stanza, there are liminal spaces and dichotomies. Here, at the end of the poem, the speaker takes a side: Silence is not better than speaking. It is “better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive” (Lines 42-44). Speaking is preferable, but when a marginalized person speaks, they must remember that not only do “the heavy-footed” (Line 21) people not want to listen to marginalized people, but they also don’t want marginalized people to have the capacity to speak. Lorde encourages other members of the collective to use their voices, but use them wisely.