Coal

Audre Lorde’s poem is written in free-verse. The three stanzas vary in length, from four lines to 15 lines. The lines also vary in length, from one word to nearly covering the full width of a book page.

The first stanza, which has seven lines, begins with the shortest line of the poem. It simply contains the pronoun “I” (Line 1). This puts the focus of the poem on the speaker, who can be read as Lorde herself. “I” is a word that she says, which begins the theme of the power of speech and language. The word “I” is not just associated with Blackness. Identity, for her, is forever linked to being Black, as seen in the definition of “I” that she gives: “the total black” (Line 2). She asserts that Blackness comes from deep inside the earth, beginning the central metaphor, or comparison, of coal (something that is inside the earth) with Blackness.

In the second half of the first stanza, the metaphor of Blackness with coal is developed by comparing words to diamonds. How a diamond becomes a “knot of flame” (Line 5)—a gem with an internal sparkly fire—is aligned with how sounds become words. Both, the speaker argues, are types of openness. She says words are “coloured / By who pays what for speaking” (Lines 6-7), which draws upon the dual meanings of the word “coloured” (Line 6). This refers to both skin color and the state of being impacted by something. How coal becomes a diamond through pressure is compared to the pressures that Black people face.

The second stanza is over twice as long as the first stanza with 15 lines. It offers many similes and metaphors—two types of comparisons—for words. In poetry, lists of comparisons (or other descriptions) are sometimes called catalogs. First in Lorde’s list is how words can cut like a diamond cuts a window. She argues that words “are open” (Line 8) through sharp pressure. This pressure of cutting glass with a diamond is given sensory descriptions, including singing, which refers back to the previous stanza’s discussion of “sound” (Line 6). This idea of sound focuses on orality, or spoken words, which is part of the theme of the power of speech.

The next comparison in the second stanza is between words and paper wagers, or bets. This simile uses the image of a book with paper wagers stapled together. The wagers are signed and torn apart when purchased, leaving ticket stubs behind in the book. A pair of em dashes add a visual of a marked-off section that can be compared to a ticket and its stub. Lorde uses this comparison (in both form and content) to describe how speaking out is a gamble, especially for Black women. Despite the outcome of the gamble, “come whatever wills all chances” (Line 13), the stub for the wager is still in the book. Lorde describes it through another comparison between the stub and a poorly extracted tooth—a part of the speaker’s mouth.

Words are also compared to animals, which have symbolic meanings. Lorde describes unspoken words, or words in her throat, as “Breeding like adders” (Line 17), or snakes. These are contrasted with spoken words, which come out of her lips like “young sparrows” (Line 20) being born. These similes consistently focus on the power of language being an embodied one by listing body parts like the “tongue” (Line 18). The second stanza ends by developing the negative symbolism from snakes to the devil, when the speaker says, “Some words / Bedevil me” (Lines 21-22). This is part of the power of language and speech.

The third and final stanza is the shortest stanza with only four lines. It begins by introducing the word “Love” (Line 23) as a type of openness. The speaker then compares the process of a diamond gaining fire, or becoming shiny and reflective, with her Blackness coming from the inside of the earth, like coal. The pressures that she experiences as a Black woman turn her words into “jewel[s]” (Line 26) that can reflect light. Blackness creates beautiful, diamond-like words.

Also, the speaker associates Blackness itself with beauty and brilliance. This is seen in the syntax (order of words) of the comparison, “As a diamond comes into a knot of flame / I am Black because I come from the earth’s inside” (Lines 24-25). "Diamond" is the third word in Line 24, and "Black" is the third word in Line 25. In this sentence structure, the process of the diamond becoming fiery, or shiny, is aligned with being born as Black. This syntax gives the earth a maternal quality—the earth delivers the Black woman. The poem ends with a Black woman speaking words that are like diamonds outside of the womb of the earth, in the “open light” (Line 26).