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...
... middle of paper ...
...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.
Works Cited
1. "Audre Lorde (1934-1992)." Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 173. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2006. 36-148. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. . 14 November 2011
2. "Audre Lorde (1934-)." Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler, Laurie DiMauro, and Sean R. Pollock. Vol. 71. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 230-264. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. . 16 November 2011
Hall, Sharon K., ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 39. New York: Gale Research, Inc., 1986.
Heberle, Mark. "Contemporary Literary Criticism." O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Vol. 74. New York, 2001. 312.
...Chrie, D., (ed.), Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1986. Vo. 13, pp. 53-111.
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Linda Pavlovski and Scott T. Darga, vol. 106, Gale, 2001. 20th Century Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/KSZNPN102098467/LCO?u=schaumburg_hs&sid=LCO. Accessed 14 Dec. 2017. Originally published in CLA Journal, vol. 31, June 1988, pp.
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
Nyren, Dorothy, ed. A Library of Literary Criticism: Modern American Literature. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1971.
Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jay Parini. Vol. 14. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.
23. Carolyn Riley and Barbara Harte, eds., Contemporary Literary Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of Today's Novelists, Poets, Playwrights and Other Creative Writers, vol. 1 (Detroit: Book Tower, 1973- ) 20.
...y Literature Criticism. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Vol. 10. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985.Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
London Independent (19 Apr. 2008): 46. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter, Ph.D. Vol.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "Essay date 1935." Twentieth-Century Litirary Criticism 9. Ed. Dennis Poupond. Detroit: Gale Research, 1983. 316-317
Forum 19.4 (Winter 1985): 160-162. Rpt. inTwentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 192. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
Ferguson, Margaret W. , Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry. shorter fifth edition. New York, New York: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2005. print.
Reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 35 Central Virginia Community College online library, Lynchburg, VA 12 Nov. 2003 http://galenet.galegroup.com/
Reidhead, Julia, ed. Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 7, 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.