Audre Lorde Analysis

Audre Lorde: Poet, Lesbian, Activist, Mother.

Although the majority of Lorde’s poetry and essays focus on her sexuality and race there is a poem, published in Coal, 1976, that seems to stand out among her inner darkness. Now That I Am Forever With Child is a shining beacon to Lorde’s first full pregnancy, and you can feel the joy and love in her words as you read each line. In comparison to her poem Coal, the books namesake, there are many contrasting styles in word choice, imagery, meaning and much more. This essay will explore these contrasts and shed further light on Lorde’s beacon of motherhood.

While there are many ways to interpret Lorde’s work my point of view on her works comes from a knowledge of almost motherhood. Although Lorde persevered through an illegal abortion her view on motherhood, in her poem and in written works, remains clear and unsoiled. Simply from the first stanza I feel connected to Lorde on a level that only mothers can know. Though my view is skewed as my baby was never born. The love I expressed, like Lorde’s, was very real and very

Each stanza represents a period of motherhood: pregnancy, birth and post birth. In the first stanza Lorde recalls each day she grew larger and the first feeling of movement with the baby. She then lists the growth of the baby, this represents her pregnancy stage. In the second stanza Lorde speaks of giving birth, she uses imagery and is able to make her feelings jump off of the page. She is able to fathom and represent feelings of giving birth. The third stanza relapses into Lorde’s distinctive hidden meaning style. This stanza, about post birth, was the most difficult for me to understand because it was not an experience I could relate to as well as Lorde’s change in writing. After consulting passages in Warrior Poet I feel that I have interpreted Lorde’s work to the best of my