Hanging Fire

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Meter

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Literary Devices Meter

Lorde wrote “Hanging Fire” in free verse, which means the poem doesn’t have a regular meter. Instead, the length of each line varies, ranging between two and ten syllables. This range in line lengths is important to the poem’s overall effect. Narrated in the first person, as it is, the poem showcases the speaker’s freely flowing thoughts as they race from one insecurity to the next. The variable line lengths allow Lorde to manipulate the pace of the language so that it mimics the pace of the speaker’s thinking. For an example, consider lines 24–30, which open the poem’s third stanza:

Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces

The first five lines are very close in terms of length. The first line is the longest, with eight syllables, and this is followed by lines of six, seven, seven, and then again six syllables. However, the sixth line is considerably shorter, with just two syllables. The sudden change in line length has a powerful effect, showing how, after racing through a list of injustices, her thoughts momentarily slow down to emphasize the special injustice of her being “the one” who must wear braces.