Audre Lorde is an extremely progressive poet for her time. Her poem “Love Poem” really reflects her own personal beliefs and culture unapologetically. This particular poem discusses a speaker’s (presumably Lorde herself) lesbian encounter with another woman in an extremely poetic and a not so subliminal way. She does so, through the usage of nature and symbolizing that to a woman’s body in addition to descriptive language.
Firstly, it is important to point out how her initial line begins with a command, “Speak earth and bless me with what is richest” (line 1). This command is very important because it gives characterization of the speaker. By commanding the earth to speak and bless her, she is fully confident in who she is and what type of power she possesses. From here, the poem continues with extremely descriptive landscapes symbols to reflect the speaker’s body. The poem reads, “rigid as mountains // spread over a valley // carved out by the mouth of rain” (3-5). The use of the terms “mountains”, and “valley” can quite literally be synonymous with the female anatomy of breasts and genitalia which is exactly what the poet intended. These lines are purposeful, for they are easing the reader into the not so subtle next stanza.
The poem then continues in stanza two using such extremely graphic language that is apparent to connecting the words, to her sexual encounter with another female. The first line of stanza two, “And I knew when I entered her…” strictly discusses penetration. This is very forward for any poet at this time, especially being that it describes lesbian culture in a time where that was shamed and frowned upon. The speaker continues on to use more naturalistic terms to symbolize the woman’s body. She uses terms such as, “forests hollow” and “honey flowed” (7,9). The forests reflects the female genitalia; this is the second time in this poem that a vagina is symbolized. “Honey flowed” reflects vaginal discharge during sexual interactions. The use of natural landscapes is beautifully done by Lorde, for this sets up her argument that being a lesbian is innate. This was absolutely uncommon during these times and she is strong enough to use her voice to refute that through her poetry.
From this point in the poem and onward, the speaker feels she has eased her way into this content that she wants to discuss, so she writes this in a very blunt way. This makes this poem reflect an erotica poem. She uses phrases such as, “impaled on a lance of tongues // on the tips of her breast on her navel // and my breath // howling into her entrances” (11-14). There are no symbols in this section of the poem, it is strictly a description.
These symbols being present through the introduction of the poem and then lacking anything other than straight up description towards the end, was extremely strategic of Lorde. She, as people know, was utterly progressive and craves society to feel comfortable in a discussion such as lesbian culture. She was smart though because if someone of her time began reading the poem and read extremely graphic and erotic phrases in the beginning, they would turn a blind eye to it and disgustfully tarnish her work. Lorde does not see these topics as controversial, yet is aware the society she’s surrounded by would be against something of the sort.
It is also important to note that this poem has two publishing dates; one in 1973 and another in 1975. This could mean that the poem was rejected initially by publishers for its crude content. Lorde could have accepted defeat and not attempt to publish it again, but instead she tried again to publish it two years later. This shows Lorde’s character. She feels that advocacy and voicing an opinion no matter how unpopular it is, is important for a society to grow and flourish.
- How different do you think the reactions of this poem would be if it were published in 2020?
- What other word choices/symbols in this poem do you feel have strong relevance on the topic of LGBTQ+ literature?
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Hey mike,
I enjoyed your interpretation of this poem since it clarified many questions I had after my first reading. The first line confused me because I was unsure as to whether this was an apostrophe to earth, or as to whether Lorde was referring to “Speaking Earth” as a way of saying speak truthfully and naturally in a way that is not censored. I also picked up on the erotic connotations of the poem as Lorde refers to the vagina as, “a valley carved out by the mouth of rain”. This not only sensualizes the lesbian experience but I believe it portrays lesbian sex as an extremely intimate, natural experience. I believe in contemporary society, this poem would receive much praise, and much controversy due to the very split philosophies our country has on LGBTQ culture.
This is a poem I would love to deeper explore regarding my future blog post about Audrey Lorde’s sexuality. I completely agree with your argument, Mikey, for Lorde romanticizes her own romantic and sexual encounter with a woman she clearly lusts for and cares about. I love that you point out how Lorde chooses nature to describe the act of sex. With her sweet language, it implies that she is making love to the woman described. The words she chooses are words associated with bliss or sweetness, as nature represents those characteristics, and has for centuries in literature. I like this connection that you point out between nature and her figurative choice of words because these strategies are used in writing to describe sex usually, yet traditionally between a man and a woman. Lorde does the same thing, showing no difference with the captivating feelings associated with making love. An additional piece of textual evidence from “Love Poem” could arguably be the title itself, as well as “Greedy as herring-gulls.” The narrator is implying she is as greedy for sharing their love as hungry seagulls. Lorde is suggesting that love drives you mad. The sexual tension between her and the woman that is frowned upon is tied to love as well.
Hi Mikey, I really liked your work on this poem. All of your examples of the nature images that stand in as the erotic actions/human body are really spot on! Something that I have noticed so far with Lorde’s poetry is her use of nature imagery. In this poem, “Coal” and “A Litany for Survival” Lorde puts nature in conversation with or as a comparison to difficult/hard to understand topics. For example, the “shoreline” in reference to living in the in-between from “A Litany to Survival”. Nature is a typical facet of poetry which just furthers how masterful a poet Lorde was.
I have read this poem before and something that always tripped me up was line 15, “through lungs of pain”. Lungs obviously refer to the organ which furthers the list of body parts Lorde uses. It is the “pain” that I question. Does the pain refer to physical pain or emotional/mental pain? I think that knowing the historical context around this poem and the homophobia of the time the pain could refer to a mental pain of not being accepted by societal standards. The pain of knowing that her love and desire is not acceptable would be painful. I’m curious if anyone else has any ideas of how “pain” fits into the poem.
Hey Mikey, I thought you did a really great job analyzing “Love Poem” and making the connection between Sapphic themes and nature. Specifically pointing out the dual publishing dates of this poem are really important. When we look at the historical culture surrounding the gay rights movement it adds another layer to just how unapologetic Lorde was about this poem. In fact, the original attempted publication year being 1973 is huge because it is the same year homosexuality was finally and justly removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Homosexuality was treated like a mental disorder up until this year and surely that has a huge effect on how gay people were treated in that respect. When Lorde writes about, “howling … through lungs of pain” it really stands to symbolize the intense liberation it was to feel that love with another woman (Lorde). And to respond to your second question, I thought her closing lines “over and over – again” were a brilliant metaphor for multiple orgasms, which usually have a strong relevance for most Sapphic literary works (Lorde).
Hey Mikey,
I think you did a great job with analyzing the poem to its full extent and I agree with your interpretation of the poem. I was blown away with how Audre Lorde incorporated nature with her sexual experiences with other women. Lorde did not hold back with her details explaining how she enjoyed her experiences. She found beauty with each sexual encounter she had with women and she used nature to portray its beauty. The line that stood out to me the most was how she used “honey flowed.” Honey carries a pure and sweet connotation, she believed her sexual interactions were deep and beautiful connects. Tying the poem back with the other reading written by Barbara Smith, “Toward a Black Feminist Critic,” both writers are black queer women that will not hide their existence in literature and strive to become advocates to represent their community “…I want to be writing this for a black women publication, for black women who know and love these writers as I do and who, if they do not yet know their names, have at least profoundly felt the pain of their absence (20).” If “Love Poem” was published in 2020 there would be massive support/admiration and this poem would have easily been recognized for its inclusivity. There are more queer authors of color that represent minority communities and Lorde would have fit perfectly, alongside with her activism.
Hi Mikey!
I loved your analysis about the poem. When I was first reading this poem, I did not make the connections between nature and lesbian culture. It was not until the second time that I read through the poem and annotated that I started to connect these two things as well. One line that I thought was significant to this theme was “And I knew when I entered her I was// high wind in her forests hollow//fingers whispering sound//honey flowed” (6-9). I thought that this was a brilliant way for Lorde to incorporate both lesbian culture as well as nature in a text. I took these lines to be a way for the speaker to say that sex is a natural thing for humans. In response to your first question I think that if this poem was to be published today it would be praised and eye opening for many people.
Mikey,
I thought this poem was very powerful for Lorde to create as well. It was out of her time for her to write which is why I enjoyed it. Even though Lorde knew she would receive criticism and lash-back for publishing this, she did so anyways. If she were to publish it in today’s society, many people would’ve admired it. But, we continue to see that Lorde was a writer that wrote what she wanted to regardless of how others would feel. To me, that is why she was such a powerful and influential voice because she wrote these things anyways because she wanted to make the minority feel as though they could be themselves and voice their opinions. I think this poem really correlates to her poem “Coal”. In both poems, she references nature and the earth to express her feelings. In “Coal” she says, “Love is a word another kind of open/As a diamond comes into a knot of flame/I am black because I come from the earth’s inside” we see that again she uses the idea of love and nature to establish her feelings and frustrations with society.
Hey! I really liked your perspective on this poem! I personally thought the poem was quite beautiful yet haunting. The poem overall reminded me very much of the idea of Gaia, or mother Earth. The lines, “make sky flow honey out of my hips / rigid as mountains / spread over a valley / carved out by the mouth of rain.” The description reminds me of mother Earth, Gaia who is made of Earth and the Earth is her. The mountains her curves, the valleys her body, etc. It sounds ever so beautiful.
Though I do see how the lesbian aspect, but only if the two are in the midst of a rather intimate act. As the whole, “on the tips of her breast and navel” is certainly something that could describe a sexual act. I really loved the poem overall and found it to be quite beautiful as the description of the act is lovely and so is the description of the woman. But if it were published now, a lot of people would likely have a problem with it. Unfortunately, too many people are still to homophobic and still quite disgusted by the idea of women being together or men being together. Which is quite unfortunate as everyone deserves to be happy.