Do you remember your first love? How you felt at night, unable to sleep because of the lopsided ratio of infatuation-induced adrenaline to blood? The feeling of the pedal shuddering against the bottom of your toes as you start your clunky first car? The years between thirteen and nineteen are filled with acne, first loves, tough crowds at school, and first tastes of freedom. The concerns and passions during this period of life are well expressed through tones, perspectives, and a myriad of literary devices in Tony Hoagland’s “History of Desire” and Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire”. Although these two poems share the same themes, Hoagland’s reflects back upon this time, while Lorde’s is still enmeshed in these adolescent struggles.
Both poems are sans rhyme scheme and have informal structures, which intentionally or not, fit very well with the frantically changing mood of the teenage years. For instance, a formal villanelle structure and iambic rhythm are left out because they are organized and premeditated, which are two adjectives that do not describe the typical teenager’s life. If one could turn these years into paper and ink, it would look like “History of Desire” and “Hanging Fire”; they are messy enough to show the angst, and neat enough to show hope for adulthood. This is why these poems are both grouped into stanzas. “History of Desire” is grouped into ten four line stanzas, followed by a final couplet. “Hanging Fire” is built from three stanzas; eleven, twelve, and twelve lines respectively. Both “History of Desire” and “Hanging Fire” reflect on former loves, and are narratives about being seventeen and fourteen years old. Therefore these qualities are purposely included to convey the distracted and unconstructed life of a t...
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...alities of Tony Hoagland’s “History of Desire” and Audre Lorde’s “Hanging Fire” are compared and contrasted. Although these two poets have very different tones and other idiosyncrasies, they share the same theme of young love and teenage struggles.
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