The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
1 The black unicorn is
greedy.
2 The black unicorn is impatient.
3 'The black unicorn was mistaken
4 for a shadow or symbol
5 and taken
6 through a cold country
7 where mist painted mockeries
8 of my fury.
9 It is not on her lap where the horn rests
10 but deep in her moonpit
11 growing.
12 The black unicorn is restless
13 the black unicorn is unrelenting
14 the black unicorn is not
15 free
2 The black unicorn is impatient.
3 'The black unicorn was mistaken
4 for a shadow or symbol
5 and taken
6 through a cold country
7 where mist painted mockeries
8 of my fury.
9 It is not on her lap where the horn rests
10 but deep in her moonpit
11 growing.
12 The black unicorn is restless
13 the black unicorn is unrelenting
14 the black unicorn is not
15 free
Audre Lorde is a famous black poet
who is known for her technical mastery and emotional expression in her
poems. She uses anger in many of her
poems to express her feelings toward the civil and social injustices she had
witnessed in her life. Many of her poems
dealt with civil rights issues, feminism, and the exploration of the female
black identity.
This poem describes the speaker’s attitude
towards other’s struggle in life, and just the problems they had faced being a
slave. The use of comparing blacks to a
unicorn is an important metaphor because unicorns are different in their
physical appearance from all other animals similar to it, and how they are not
treated the same way other animals are treated.
This relates to how the blacks are treated differently from all other
people based on their physical appearance.
In lines 14 and 15, the speaker is directly explaining how this black
unicorn is that of a slave, mainly because it describes the black unicorn as
not having freedom. Also, in the
beginning of this poem, the unicorn is described as ‘greedy’ and ‘impatient’
which is how the slaves were thought of just because they weren’t born into a better
life.
I like how you choose to stay on the topic of Black History Month by continuing what we have been doing in class and analyzing a poem instead of discussing your views on the holiday. Few people have chosen to do that and I think introducing new poems we have yet to discuss was clever of you. For the most part I agree with your take on the poem on how it is about the struggle Blacks faced throughout the years. What I do question is the depth you delved into on the symbolism of the unicorn. You talked about how the unicorns appearances contrasting to other animals is a metaphor for how Blacks differ in appearance towards others, which results in them being treated differently. Audre Lorde did not only face the struggles of being Black during such a time period, but she was also gay which was not rarely accepted back then. What if the unicorn symbolizes the uniqueness of her situation for being both Black and gay during her lifetime? What if it is a referent towards the fact that it was hard to find Black gays when she was alive since is was not as acceptable as it is today? That could be how it relates to a unicorn for they are rare sightings and what she did at the time, standing tall and proud as an independent gay Black woman, could be the reason why the poem is titled The Black Unicorn. I only wonder if you thought of any of these questions and what exactly the true meaning of the poem is.
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