Poetic Devices In Hanging Fire

Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde

'Hanging Burn down' by Audre Lorde is an incredibly relevant poem. The poet explores a young girl's perception of her body and life.

In 'Hanging Burn down,' Lorde uses a young daughter, a xiv-year-old, as the speaker. She takes on this persona to speak about boyhood. The girl worries about how she looks, what others think of her, her relationship with her mother, and the feelings she has for an young boy. Throughout this poem Lorde explores themes of youth, growing upwards/coming of age, and expiry.

Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde

Summary of Hanging Burn down

'Hanging Fire' by Audre Lorde is told from the perspective of a young girl who is filled with worries, some of which are mundane and others existential.

The poem takes the reader into the listen of a fourteen-year-onetime girl who is beseeched by doubts and concerns. She lists out all her worries while at the aforementioned time alluding to the fact that her mother is non at that place for her. The girl is concerned about her ashy knees, a male child she's infatuated with, and what to wear to schoolhouse. But at the same time, she also thinks about dying before she grows up. Each stanza ends with the repetition of the phrase "and momma's in the bedroom / with the door closed" suggesting that things would be improved for her if she could only talk to her female parent.

You lot can read the full poem here.

Structure of Hanging Fire

'Hanging Fire' by Audre Lorde is a three-stanza verse form that is separated into one fix of eleven lines and two sets of twelve lines. These lines do not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern, a technique known as free poesy. The lines range in length from two syllables upward to 7. Despite the lack of patterns, at that place are several literary devices that a careful reader can spot in Lorde'southward 'Hanging Fire'.

Literary Devices in Hanging Burn down

Lorde makes employ of several literary devices in 'Hanging Fire'. These include but are notlimited to enjambment, repetition, and alliteration. The outset, enjambment, is sen throughout this poem. It is emphasized through the utilise of a stream of consciousness narrative style in which the speaker moves from 1 worry to the next without suspension. Almost all the lines of the poem are enjambed.

Repetition is 1 of the nearly of import techniques in 'Hanging Fire'. The speaker returns to similar themes while also making use of a refrain and the repeated references to her own death. Lastly, alliteration is a helpful device used to create a feeling of rhyme and rhythm in 'Hanging Fire'. A skilful case is "still sucks" and "secret" in lines 4 and five of the outset stanza.

Analysis of Hanging Fire

Stanza One

I am fourteen

and my skin has betrayed me

the male child I cannot alive without

(…)

and momma's in the bedroom

with the door airtight.

The starting time lines of 'Hanging Fire' introduce the reader to the speaker, a fourteen-year-old girl. She is filled with worries, many of which she shares. The first of these is not the most important, but its the first that comes to heed. She declares that her "peel has betrayed" her. This is a very relatable and obvious reference to acne. Information technology's bad enough to where it feels as though her skin is actively working confronting her, a wonderful example of personification.

The next affair she worries near is the boy she "cannot alive without" (an example of a hyperbole) simply who still "sucks his thumb in secret". This is a slightly more complicated worry. She is stressed about her feelings but also worried about the male child she loves. In improver to this, she adds that her knees are ashy, or dry, something she'southward also cocky-witting about.

These adequately depression stakes worries are then juxtaposed against a much larger 1, that she might "die / earlier forenoon". This is a shining transition that alludes to the fact that this young girl has more than trouble on her mind than it seemed at first. The stanza concludes with the refrain. It is one of her nigh important worries that are connected to all the other problems she has, that her mother is in the "bedroom / with the door closed". Mayhap, a reader might conclude, many of these worries would be resolved if she was able to connect with her mother.

Stanza Two

I have to learn how to trip the light fantastic toe

in time for the next party

my room is too minor for me

suppose I dice earlier graduation

(…)

The 2d stanza is structured similarly to the first although there is i more line, taking the full to twelve lines in this stanza. It is filled with more worries. These come one after some other in a stream of consciousness style. Whenever one pops into her heed she mentions it. Her "room is too pocket-size" and she has a party coming up. What if, she suggests, she dies "earlier graduation".

Her worries are becoming more circuitous as she considers her ain death and the path she's on in life. She feels similar there's so much that has to exist done just nothing she wants to do. This is all fabricated harder to deal with by the fact that she has no one to talk to nearly it.

Stanza Three

(…)

I have zero to clothing tomorrow

will I live long enough

to grow up

and momma's in the bedroom

with the door closed.

In the tertiary and final stanza of 'Hanging Fire,' the immature speaker begins past maxim that no one ver "stoeps to retrieve / well-nigh my side of information technology". This simple phrase carries a lot of weight. She feels as though the world looks past her or through her. No ane, whether request her is a real possibility or non, thinks to do so. She is non in control of her life and doesn't want to be with one with "goose egg to wear" and with "braces".

The verse form concludes with the repetition of the remaining for the last fourth dimension and another instance of this young person worrying about death. She doesn't know if she's going to live long enough to "grow upward" and exit all these things (braces, ashy knees) behind her. She doesn't desire where she is now to exist as far as she goes in life. But, she as well doesn't know what'south next or how to get there. That'due south where her mother should come in simply doesn't.