Hanging Fire: Key Poetic Devices

Enjambment

The term enjambment (en-JAM-ment) refers to instances when a poetic line doesn’t end with punctuation, but rather runs over to the next line without stopping. In “Hanging Fire,” virtually every line is enjambed. The only lines that are end-stopped are the final lines of each of the poem’s three stanzas. Aside from the periods that close each stanza, the poem contains no other punctuation. Because punctuation functions to separate out individual clauses and sentences, it has the effect of regulating the flow of language. By not using any punctuation in the body of each stanza, Lorde conveys a sense of freely flowing thought that is reminiscent of a technique known as stream-of-consciousness. This technique is made particularly effective through Lorde’s use of enjambment. One line flows steadily into the next, which conveys how the speaker’s anxious ruminations flow seamlessly from one insecurity or injustice to another. This free flow of thought becomes that much more pronounced on the rare occasions when a line does end with a period, signaling a rare pause in the speaker’s thoughts. These brief moments of pause place the poem’s use of enjambment into stark and powerful relief.

Enumeration

Enumeration—which is sometimes referred to by its Latin name, enumeratio—is a rhetorical technique that involves the listing of details. Through the listing of details, enumeration creates an amplifying effect that expands and enriches whatever issue or matter is under discussion. Lorde uses enumeration throughout “Hanging Fire,” effectively composing the poem from a laundry list of the speaker’s teenage anxieties. As an example, consider the poem’s opening stanza (lines 1–11):

I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his thumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before morning
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Though not explicitly framed as such, this stanza is essentially a list of things that are going wrong in the speaker’s life. To paraphrase: she’s fourteen, she hates her skin, the boy she likes is immature, her knees are ashy, and she could die at any moment and her mother wouldn’t even notice. This summary of the first stanza makes it clear that the speaker is not analyzing her situation carefully. Nor is she being particularly introspective. Instead, she’s listing in her head the many things that aren’t right in her life. What’s potent about the poem is the way a simple list like this can, in Lorde’s masterful hands, emerge as a powerful comment on both the major and minor challenges of growing up as a Black girl.

Refrain

In poetry, the term refrain refers to any word, phrase, line, or group of lines that gets repeated over the course of a poem. Lorde makes powerful use of refrain in “Hanging Fire.” The poem consists of three stanzas, each of which concludes the same way (lines 10–11; 22–23; and 34–35):

and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Because this refrain repeats three times, it comes to have a central importance in the poem. Throughout all the anxieties that plague our speaker, the one worry she continuously circles back to relates to her mother, who’s “in the bedroom / with the door closed.” For whatever reason, the speaker’s mother is not available for her daughter, and the broken line of communication has left the speaker on her own, without adult guidance. In the first and last stanzas, the speaker worries that she will suffer an early death, and her mother will be sequestered in her room, ignorant and perhaps even uncaring. By contrast, in the middle stanza, the speaker worries about there being “too much / that has to be done” (lines 20–21), and she’s left alone to take care of it all because, again, “momma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed.”

Rhetorical Questions

Rhetorical questions aren’t generally meant to be answered. Rather, writers use them to make a point or to create a dramatic effect. “Hanging Fire” features several rhetorical questions, which collectively serve to underscore the speaker’s anxiety about her life and her frustration about injustice. On first reading the poem, you might not notice the presence of rhetorical questions due to the lack of punctuation. That is, there are no question marks. You might also miss the rhetorical questions because of the way they are unexpectedly mixed in with other observations and worries. Even so, the speaker asks four questions, in lines 6–7; 8–9; 28–30; and 32–33, respectively:

how come my knees are
always so ashy[?]

what if I die
before morning[?]

why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces[?]

will I live long enough
to grow up[?]

In each of these cases, the speaker uses a rhetorical question to convey some kind of anxiety. Most notably, two of the speaker’s rhetorical questions relate specifically to the possibility of her premature death. The other questions have less to do with future uncertainty than it does with present injustice. With everything else going on in her life, she wonders why she also has “ashy” knees and needs braces. Given their rhetorical nature, none of these questions can be answered, which perhaps exacerbates the speaker’s overall sense of anxiety and insecurity.

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