Summary Of Hanging Fire By Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire” is a poem that uses a teen speaker to display the issues of adolescence. The speaker rapidly rattles off a list of her concerns including boys, dancing, and pimples. The reader will quickly recognize these issues as common problems amongst teenagers. The speaker is alone with her problems, while her mother is in her bedroom. Lorde’s form, repetition, and incorporation of dark elements help portray the issues of struggling through adolescence. Lorde’s lack of punctuation adds to the piece. “Hanging Fire” is 35 lines long, with only three instances of punctuation. The speaker asks, “how come my knees are / always so ashy / what if i die / before morning” (Lorde 6-9). Two completely different topics are allowed

The lines, “and mamma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed” are repeated several times throughout the work (Lorde10-11). In the first appearance of the line, it seems as if it the speaker is looking for someone to turn to with her problems. The speaker says she has “to learn how to dance” and is worried about the boy she “cannot live without” (Lorde 12, 3). These are adolescent problems that a mother would commonly help resolve; however, our speaker is worrying about them on her own while her mother is on the other side of the door. As the poem continues and the line is repeated we see there may be a larger problem. Throughout the speaker’s complaints and worries, her mother is repeated three times. Instead of looking for someone to talk to about her complaints, the speaker may be complaining about the mother. The door separating the mother and daughter could symbolize a strain or distance in their relationship. The speaker has issues with her mother, which adds to the idea of struggling through

The speaker brings up death amongst her complaints. She wonders if she will “die / before morning” or “live long enough / to grow up” (Lorde 8-9, 32-33). These lines may seem morbid and out of place, but the adolescent speaker puts them back into perspective. As a young child, the idea of dying is only portrayed through playful games; however, an adolescent who is starting to realize the reality of the world may consider the possibility of death. Also, the speaker has pimples and boys at the top of a list of worries. An adolescent may consider an acne breakout on the same plane as death, and death is just another issue she mulls over in her