What is the tone of Audre Lorde's poem "Hanging Fire"?

Audre Lordes
poem Hanging Fire looks at life through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old. What the young
teenager sees is not a happy and secure childhood. The tone of this poem could be described as
foreboding, which means fearful apprehension.

Poets develop their tone by
the use of , which is word choice. Compared to other forms of writing, poetic language is
spareevery word needs to carry significant meaning; there just isnt room for words that dont
help the poet convey his point. In considering the tone of a poem, a careful reader can usually
find some key words that the poet uses to create it.

In Hanging Fire one
good example of diction that develops tone comes in the second half of that first stanza
with:

what if I die

before
morning

The implication here is obviousthe thought of
death, especially such an imminent death, should not be what is on the mind of a
fourteen-year-old.

Poets often repeat key elements of diction in one way or
another, and Lorde does this near the end of the poem with these lines:

will I live enough

to grow up

These lines echo the subjects thought of death from the first
stanza. He or she is filled with mortal fear of what might happen in the near future, which is
the sense of foreboding that forms the tone of the poem.