Adrienne Rich’s poem Hunger, dedicated to Audre Lorde, focuses on the oppression of women in society and the use of writing and personal expression to give women a voice. This specific passage of the poem sounds very sad and like she is longing for something. The repetition of “even our intimacies are rigged with terror” could mean the anxiousness and fear that she senses when trying to voice her opinions. “intimacies” and “terror” are technically opposites, where terror invokes fear but intimacy invokes peace and harmony. Through the poem, Rich tries to reconcile her own experiences with the stories of others. These lines as well as the whole poem conveys her struggle to create a voice for women, especially queer women, who are trapped by the ideals of feminine behavior and ideals in a male-dominated and heteronormative world. The fact that this particular poem is dedicated to Audre Lorde further exposes the fact that she wanted this poem to empower women to speak up about the types of oppression they face. Audre Lorde’s other work describing the erotic also comes into play in this poem. It contains a sense of the erotic that can help women overcome their suffering. The poem urges women to use the power of the erotic in their daily lives to overcome oppression and suffering and create a better world for themselves. The lines create a sense of hope about the future women face and the positive outcomes that can come from their struggle for equality in today’s world.
3 thoughts on “Thoughts on Hunger”
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Taygurley,
I agree with the fact that through the erotic Rich creates a voice for women’s voices that are unheard, silenced and dominated by male hegemony. I like how you pick “intimacies” and “terrors” out of your chosen excerpt, however I really wanted to read more about what you thought those two words were used for. Is the “intimacy” aspect of Rich’s poem, the instances when she shares personal stories of herself and others? What about “terrors?” Are the “terrors” when Rich depicts bleak depictions of the women’s oppression? Push further because these two words are so weighted with meaning.
Taygurley, I completely agree with your note about the significance of the two words “intimacies” and “terror.” Re-reading Rich’s poem Hunger I noticed that despite her use of the two words (intimacies and terror) she uses more diction that relates to the word terror rather than intimacies. For instance, she repeatedly uses forms of the word death, like “suicide,” “dies,” “half-alive,” “starves,” “kills,” “malnutrition,” “suffering,” “destroying,” and several more. I wonder if the poems speaker hopes to explain that despite the possibility for, as you mentioned, the act of intimacy that “invokes peace and harmony” there is little place for this in a world where the speaker undergoes so much terror.
Taygurley,
I really like your interpretation of Rich’s usage of “intimacy” and “terror”. To me, this word choice, along with others used in the poem, represents the vulnerability of the writer. Her willingness to admit a fear of this terror and to delve into personal topics of intimacy struck me as a cry for help against this injustice against women. As I mentioned in another comment, I feel she is trying to call out to a larger audience than women along. While women are undoubtedly the audience she is trying to empower, the changes necessary are something they cannot conquer along. Lastly, in many ways it resonated with the vulnerability I saw in the erotic. Perhaps, this mirroring of themes was a reason for her dedication of the poem to Lorde.