A Litany for Survival

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1978

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“A Litany for Survival” is a free verse poem with 44 lines of varying lengths, from lines that are a single word, such as “futures” (Line 11), to lines that almost reach to the right-hand margin, such as “like a faint line in the center of our foreheads” (Line 17). This means that the poem has a varied, unset meter. Lorde breaks these lines into four stanzas of varying lengths. The first stanza is 14 lines, the second stanza is 10 lines, the third stanza is 17 lines, and the final stanza is three lines. The longer length of the third stanza reflects its content—a list of dichotomies that instill fear in marginalized people. Lorde also highlights the structure of the list by beginning Stanza 3 with the capitalized conjunction “And” (Line 25).

Stanzas 1, 3, and 4 begin with a capitalized word, marking the beginning of a sentence, and end punctuation (a semicolon and period) only appears at the end of stanzas. This makes three stanzas appear to contain only one sentence. However, in Stanza 2, there are three capitalized words. Line 15 opens the stanza with a capital, and Lines 22 and 24 also contain two capital-letter words. These lines stand at the very center of the poem: “For all of us / this instant and this triumph / We were never meant to survive” (Lines 22-24). Line 24 begins with capital “W” and returns to the survival theme introduced in the poem’s title. Placing the lines that are emphasized with capitalization at the center of the poem highlights their importance. The change in diction from “For those of us” (Line 15) to “For all of us” (Line 22)—from “those” to “all”—makes the idea more inclusive.

The final stanza is similar to the formal device of an envoy, in that it is shorter than the other stanzas and offers a conclusion. Prior to this stanza, Lorde offers unresolved dichotomies, but at the end of the poem, she strongly takes a side in favor of speaking out about injustice and oppression.

Repetition

Lorde uses repetition throughout the poem to highlight the importance of specific words. For instance, she repeats love and alone in Stanzas 1 and 3. Alone appears for the first time in Line 3: “crucial and alone.” Then love appears for the first time in Line 6: “who love in doorways coming and going.” “Alone” reappears in Line 35: “when we are alone we are afraid.” It is repeated twice in the poem. A form of the word “love” is repeated three times in Stanza 3, in Lines 33, 34, and 36. “Love” appearing more times in the poem than “alone” points to love being stronger than loneliness.

However, a word that is repeated more frequently in the poem is the word “afraid.” It appears nine times in Stanzas 2 and 3. This heavy repetition emphasizes how fear is the most prevalent emotion among marginalized individuals. A word that is repeated even more frequently than afraid is “we,” which appears 20 times in the poem. Lorde uses this repetition to highlight the importance of community. She speaks as a member of a collective, using the first-person plural pronouns, and she speaks for her community. The word “speak” is repeated only twice in Lines 37 and 42, but it is the advice she leaves the reader with at the end of the poem.

Similes

Similes are direct comparisons, usually containing the words like or as. In Stanza 1 Lorde writes, “seeking a now that can breed / futures / like bread in our children’s mouths” (Lines 10-12). She plays on the homophones of bred, meaning to have offspring, and bread, the food. Bread can also be bred, in terms of a sourdough starter being called “mother” and making bread “offspring.” Marginalized people want to be able to feed their children in the future. In other words, they not only want to create new life, but also a better world to live in. In Stanza 2, Lorde writes, “who were imprinted with fear / like a faint line in the center of our foreheads” (Lines 16-17). She compares the intangible emotion of fear with a worry line in a forehead. This simile highlights the physical nature of fear, that is, how it impacts our bodies, as well as our minds. This comparison is surprising because she is describing infants as having worry lines, which are usually a sign of old age. This highlights how being oppressed robs people of their childhoods.