“Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde was published in her 1978 collection, titled The Black Unicorn, which was her seventh book of poems. Lorde’s first collection, The First Cities, had appeared a decade earlier in 1968. After The Black Unicorn, Lorde had two more books of poetry published in her lifetime. Her final book of poetry, The Marvelous Arithmetics of Distance, was published posthumously in 1993. “Hanging Fire” is a feminist, free-verse poem that includes the themes of Experiences of Adolescence, Racism in America, and Maternal Colorism and Neglect. The poem is informed by the Black feminist movement.

Poet Biography

In 1934, Audre Lorde was born as Audrey Geraldine Lorde in New York City. She attended Catholic schools and Hunter High School. While a student at the latter, she edited the school literary journal, and had her poetry published for the first time in Seventeen magazine. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree from Hunter College and completing her Masters of Library Science from Columbia University, Lorde worked as a librarian in the public school system of New York. She also spent a year studying at the National University of Mexico.

She married Edwin Rollins and had two children, Elizabeth and Jonathan. In 1970, Rollins and Lorde divorced. Lorde came out as a lesbian, and Rollins came out as gay. Lorde met her long-term partner, Frances Clayton, in 1972. They were together until 1989.

In 1968, Lorde was writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College. Later, she became an English professor at John Jay College and Hunter College. She wrote essays that have become influential in academia, such as “The Master’s Tools Will Not Dismantle the Master’s House.” She also published non-fiction about her experiences fighting breast cancer (The Cancer Journals), as well as the semi-autobiographical book Zami: New Spelling of My Name.

Lorde had nine books of poetry published in her lifetime, including the National Book Award nominee From a Land Where Other People Live (1974). In 1991-1992, she served as the poet laureate of New York. She won many awards, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the 1991 Walt Whitman Citation of Merit.

With other female writers, Lorde established Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1981, which was aimed at promoting the literary works of women of color, whom Lorde believed were chronically under-represented and marginalized in the white-majority world of mainstream publishing. In the 1980s she also co-founded both the organization Women’s Coalition of St. Croix, which was dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence, and the Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa. Lorde passed away from cancer in 1992.

Poem Text

Lorde, Audre. “Hanging Fire.” 1978. The Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Hanging Fire” is a free verse poem with three stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker sets the scene: She is 14 years old and living at home with her mother. She has negative feelings about her pimples and learns her teenage crush sucks his thumb. She wonders why the skin on her knees is “ashy,” and wonders if she will die in her sleep that night. Meanwhile, the speaker’s mother is behind the closed door of her own bedroom.

In the second stanza, the speaker needs to prepare for a party by learning to dance. She feels like her bedroom is cramped, and wonders if she will die before she finishes high school. After her death, she thinks, people will express their grief through music. They will also be honest about her. She is not motivated to participate in an activity, but she has many responsibilities. Meanwhile, the speaker repeats that her mother is in her own bedroom, and its door is closed.

In the third stanza, the speaker does not think her side of the story is being heard. She asserts that she deserves to be a member of the math team. She compares herself to an unnamed male figure, presumably the one mentioned in the first stanza. His grades were not as good as the speaker’s. The speaker also questions why she is required to wear braces. She worries about what she is going to wear to school the next day, and if she will live to adulthood. Meanwhile, the speaker repeats a third time that her mother is behind the closed door of her own bedroom.