For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”
Poetry Is Not a Luxury – Audre Lorde (1985)
Audre Lorde’s Poetry Is Not a Luxury highlights the importance of poetry not necessarily as a whole but rather specifically for women to express their emotions and feelings through poetry. This whole writing also acts as a powerful calling for women to come together and use poetry as a way to voice their opinions in a world where it is built for the man. Lorde expresses this powerful message through her writing and it is well explained in her quote above. The quote above starts off with such an interesting sentence. Lorde writes this first sentence with a negative (for example, the word “not”), creating an opportunity to add a very strong positive sentence right after, as she does. The reason why Lorde’s second sentence comes off really strong and empowering is through the words “vital necessity,” which expresses the notion to her audience that poetry is something they REALLY NEED. Her strong message is then backed up by following sentence where she takes poetry and uses it to explain its effect that is has on women. She explains that poetry is able to strongly build those hopes and dreams women have for there to be “survival and change.” Not only this, but the cherry on top is the fact that she uses the words “quality of light” which is seen as a very positive and lively phrase. Phrases like these across her whole writing really sets the empowering mood she creates towards her audience. Lastly, the second part of the last sentence has some nice structure that is always popular yet effective in writing. I used to say when writing, that everything comes out good in 3’s, which is what Lorde did by stating what poetry is made into when women use poetry.
As for my lock and key in this passage they sort of differ in topics. I would say that my “key” would be that I understand the “why” in Lorde’s structure. For example, I think I have a good understanding as to why she chooses the words in the the first and second sentence and why she also chooses to structure the paragraph the way she did. However, I think my “lock” would be what she means by the three components she includes in the last sentences such as “…language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.” I am just a bit confused about the exact meaning of these words in this context.
Hi Daniel, I agree with you that I understand the structure of the paragraph with how Audre Lorde creates an understanding of poetry as something important and effective towards the use of 3s in describing poetry as a powerful effect that it has on women. As for your lock, I think that from this paragraph, it can be a bit explained as “Poetry coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary awareness and demand, the implementation of that freedom…” I think, in this case, for me, whenever I think of language, I think of different dialects or any mannerisms of speaking, and that in this case, this language is something that needs to express but hasn’t been expressed in a new form but as Lorde has simply said a new combination of understanding the “ancient” or the past. In addition, this form of action is necessary as something that can be like how a child needs to be nourished to live and to live is to dream and so there’s this necessity to bring out in the world this awareness and poetry allows the freedom to do so.
Hi Danny! I really love how much meaning you were able to pull from this passage! Your “lock” had me thinking too. Given that she prefaces that phrase with “predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change,” my impression was that Lorde meant that by putting our “hopes and dreams” into language through poetry, they can be made a reality (“more tangible action”) and thus promote “survival and change.” I saw this idea in other parts of the writing too, such as when Lorde described how “poetry coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary awareness and demand, the implementation of that freedom.” Like yours, I think that this passage, especially through the word choice of “implementation”, also expresses the concept of using poetry as a means to bring the abstract to a tangible reality, to realize previously internalized ideas. However, now that I think about it more, I am confused about why, in your passage, Lorde specifically listed those concepts in the order of “language” before “idea” before “tangible action.” I would’ve expected “idea” to precede “language” given that in the rest of the passage, Lorde seems to support the claim that poetry “[gives] name to those ideas which are… already felt.” So, why would language give birth to idea if Lorde argues that the idea has always been there and felt and just needs to be put into language through poetry? The only way that I can marry these two seemingly-contradictory messages is by thinking that perhaps Lorde differentiates between the meaning of “idea” versus “feeling.” At one point in the writing, Lorde mentions: “poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so that it can be thought.” This statement supports the idea that perhaps the “nameless” refers to an intangible or ungraspable concept or feeling that exists prior to language, and it is not until after language that what is felt can be considered to constitute a “thought” or “idea.” Then, the ordering of her list in your passage makes more sense to me in the context of the writing as a whole; Lorde means that our “hopes and dreams” are abstract feelings that exist only within our being, perhaps so deep or shapeless that even we cannot completely grasp or describe them at first. But, once put into language, they can become formed ideas which can then be shared and understood by others and can thus spark “tangible action.”
Hi Dany! Lovely post and analysis of this excerpt! Being able to investigate and clearly reiterate what Lorde is encouraging women to realize and do, is so present within your piece. To respond to your “lock”, as well as, Emily’s comment, I think this passage has always been clear to me in my own personal understanding. Yes, Lorde carries the notion of the existence of “an idea” throughout this essay, but it is in the multiplicitous nature of ideas. Ideas can be abstract, varying from urges to feelings to pictures, in other words initiations or simple iterations of an idea. However, becoming actively conscious and aware of an idea, requires you to be able to put in language, using our communicative ability to further solidify an idea. Now, language also has different forms, it can be physical or verbal, but it is in the identification and the action of becoming consciously aware of an idea through language that comes first. Thus leading to, “language, then into (a solidified, communicative) idea, then into tangible action.”