The American poet, essayist, and civil rights activist Audre Lorde published "Coal" in her 1976 collection of the same name. Just as intense heat and pressure can transform coal into diamonds, the speaker argues that Black people may turn their experiences with racist oppression into the glimmering "jewel" of poetry and political speech—two things that will in turn help free them. The poem speaks to the importance of language as a tool of liberation as well as a necessary component of love and communication.

• Read the full text of “Coal”

• “Coal” Summary

• “Coal” Themes

  • 

    Blackness, Language, and Liberation

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-7
    • Lines 8-22
  • 

    Love and Communication

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-26

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Coal”

  • Lines 1-3

    I ...
    ... the earth's inside.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-7

    There are many ...
    ... what for speaking.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    Some words are ...
    ... of passing sun

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-15

    Then there are ...
    ... a ragged edge.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-22

    Some words live ...
    ... Bedevil me.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-26

    Love is a ...
    ... your open light.

    

    

    

    

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• “Coal” Symbols

  • 

    Diamonds

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-3: “I / Is the total black, being spoken / From the earth's inside.”
    • Line 4: “There are many kinds of open.”
    • Line 5: “How a diamond comes into a knot of flame”
    • Line 8: “Some words are open”
    • Line 9: “Like a diamond on glass windows”
    • Lines 23-24: “Love is a word another kind of open— / As a diamond comes into a knot of flame”
    • Lines 25-26: “I am black because I come from the earth's inside / Take my word for jewel in your open light.”

• “Coal” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “black”
    • Line 3: “From the earth's inside.”
    • Line 4: “open”
    • Line 5: “How a diamond comes into a knot of flame”
    • Line 6: “How a,” “word”
    • Line 8: “Some words,” “open”
    • Line 9: “diamond”
    • Line 11: “words”
    • Line 16: “Some words”
    • Line 21: “Some words”
    • Line 23: “word,” “open”
    • Line 24: “a diamond comes into a knot of flame”
    • Line 25: “black,” “from the earth's inside”
    • Line 26: “word,” “open”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 4
    • Lines 5-7
    • Lines 8-10
    • Lines 11-12
    • Lines 16-17
    • Lines 17-20
    • Lines 23-24

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “I / Is”
    • Lines 2-3: “spoken / From”
    • Lines 6-7: “coloured / By”
    • Lines 8-9: “open / Like”
    • Lines 9-10: “windows / Singing”
    • Lines 11-12: “wagers / In”
    • Lines 16-17: “throat / Breeding”
    • Lines 17-18: “sun / Seeking”
    • Lines 18-19: “tongue / To”
    • Lines 19-20: “lips / Like”
    • Lines 21-22: “words / Bedevil”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “total,” “spoken”
    • Line 6: “word, coloured”
    • Line 9: “glass,” “windows”
    • Line 10: “Singing,” “within,” “crash,” “passing”
    • Line 11: “stapled,” “wagers”
    • Line 13: “wills”
    • Line 15: “ill”
    • Line 17: “sun”
    • Line 18: “tongue”
    • Line 20: “young”
    • Line 25: “inside”
    • Line 26: “light”

• “Coal” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Coloured
  • Wagers
  • Perforated
  • Come whatever wills all chances
  • Stub
  • Ill-pulled
  • Adders
  • Gypsies
  • Bedevil
  • (Location in poem: Lines 6-7: “coloured / By who pays what for speaking.”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Coal”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Coal” Speaker

• “Coal” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Coal”

• More “Coal” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Listen to the Poem Out Loud — A recording of the poem for Brown Girl Reading. 

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A biography of Audre Lorde at the Poetry Foundation. 

    • Lorde's Legacy of Radical and Intersectional Feminism — A Paris Review essay examining Lorde's influential ideas on race, gender, sexuality, and more.

    • The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism — A transcription of Lorde's keynote presentation for the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Storrs, Connecticut in 1981.

    • A Conversation Between Audre Lorde and James Baldwin — Fellow writers and activists Lorde and Baldwin discuss power disparities between Black and white people and Black men and women.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Audre Lorde

    • A Litany for Survival

    • A Woman Speaks

    • Power

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