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By Means Of Power - College Essays

By Means Of Power

Both Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, in their respective poems entitled Power, convey the idea that ones identity and sense of worth is defined by what they are willing to give up. This message is energized by the emotion the authors evoke through their ability to communicate a sense of experience. It is this experience as mothers and highly intelligent feminists that allow us to feel the unconditional caring towards humanity they are encouraging in their poems.
In the opening lines of Lordes Power, "The difference between poetry and rhetoric/is being/ready to kill/yourself/instead of your children"(1-5), she immediately stresses the importance of putting your child before yourself. This ...

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and shoulders/is the only liquid for miles"(9-10), "my mouth splits into dry lips"(12). With the death of her boy she is willing to sacrifice her own need of any quenching of her lips. She is "thirsting for the wetness of his blood"(14) but it is more important to resist the temptation, "trying to make power out of hatred and destruction"(18).
The power displayed in the third section of Lordes Power is that of hatred. A policeman has "shot down a 10-year-old in Queens"(21). This he justifies by saying "I didn’t notice the size or nothing else/only the color"(26-27). This officer has taken the power entrusted into him by the citizens and used it for his own good. Or not even his own good but what he might consider beneficial to his people. This directly opposes what Lorde was saying at the beginning of the poem. He is not ready to kill himself instead of his children. And although he has actually killed a boy here that is not the only thing he has killed. He killed the ...

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By Means Of Power. (2006, June 17). Retrieved January 22, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/By-Means-Of-Power/47694

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 6/17/2006 03:25:32 PM
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Free Paper
Words: 784
Pages: 3

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