Hanging Fire

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1978

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Hanging Fire” is a free-verse poem with three stanzas of varying length. The first stanza has 11 lines, while the second and third stanzas have 12 lines each. Each stanza has only one end punctuation mark (a period) after its last line. This gives the poem the syntactical structure of a run-on sentence.

Here, form matches content in that the poem is describing the thoughts of a teenager, creating the sense that the teenager is musing and worrying about various issues, seemingly at random, in real time. Some of the sentences are interrogative (i.e., ask questions) but do not end with question marks, emphasizing their rhetorical nature and the fact that they are not questions addressed to a second person. All of the stanzas contain multiple ideas, ranging from common adolescent concerns to more specific fears about violent hate crimes against Black women in America. However, line breaks are sometimes used to indicate the end of a sentence, or thought. For instance, in Line 19, Audre Lorde uses capitalization to indicate a new sentence, or thought, in beginning: “There is nothing I want to do.”

The poem has varying line lengths and meters. Some lines are only two syllables long, such as “the one” (Line 29). Some lines are four syllables long, such as “I am fourteen” (Line 1). Other lines have nine syllables, such as “I have nothing to wear to tomorrow” (Line 31). These are just a few examples of the variations in meter, which create a stream-of-consciousness form that reflects the private mental reflections and anxieties of the poem’s teenaged speaker.

Repetition

Repetition is used to emphasize the theme of Maternal Colorism and Neglect. At the end of each stanza, the lines “and momma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed” are repeated (Lines 10-11, 22-23, 34-35), forming both a refrain and the poem’s central image. These lines are at the end of the poem, stressing how none of the concerns presented throughout the poem are addressed by the speaker’s mother and suggesting that this physical and emotional barrier remains insurmountable.

The word “die” is also repeated in Lines 8 and 15. This repetition illustrates that one of the major concerns the speaker’s mother does not help the speaker with is her fear about becoming the victim of a hate crime. Another word that is repeated is “nothing,” which appears in the second and third stanzas. This repetition is part of descriptions of common teenage angst, such as feeling unmotivated—“There is nothing I want to do” (Line 19)—and like they “have nothing to wear” (Line 31), suggesting a self-consciousness about appearance. However, these experiences can be heightened by factors like socioeconomic class and gender limiting a wardrobe, as well as mental illness adding to motivational issues. In her use of repetition, Lorde’s writing investigates the intersections of different elements that cause people to be—and feel—marginalized.

Enjambment

While some line breaks indicate the end of a sentence or thought, some sentences flow into multiple lines. Enjambment is when a sentence continues on into another line without any punctuation. For instance, the lines “the boy I cannot live without / still sucks his thumb / in secret” (Lines 3-5) are enjambed. Breaking up the ideas into separate lines allows their different parts to be considered separately—1) the speaker’s crush on the boy, 2) his childish action, and 3) how he hides this action, while the enjambment helps to create the stream-of-consciousness effect in the poem, reflecting the unbroken stream of the speaker’s thoughts and emotions.

Another example of enjambment are the lines “why do I have to be / the one / wearing braces” (Lines 28-30). Here, form and content work together—the phrase “the one” is given its own line to highlight how the speaker feels alone. Also, the lines that are repeated at the end of each stanza are enjambed: “and momma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed” (Lines 10-11, 22-23, 34-35). This enjambment illustrates how the speaker’s mother is being neglectful, or isolating herself from her daughter. Initially, her being in the bedroom does not indicate her isolation. However, the line break reflects how there is space between the mother and daughter. In other words, the line break acts similarly to the symbol of the closed door and the sense of exclusion the speaker feels.