Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Audre Lorde's poem "Teacher," the complexities of promises, freedom, and limitations within an educational setting are probed with evocative imagery and poignant questions. Written in 1971, the poem opens with the speaker, presumably a teacher, making promises to their students during "wintery afternoons" and "lunchtime stories." While the role of the teacher is to enlighten and guide, the narrative captures a different kind of teaching-one that emerges out of a struggle, a lack, and a state of confinement.

The struggle is multi-layered. Physically, the teacher's feet hurt from "talking too much / and not enough movement," evoking a sense of fatigue and limitation. Yet, emotionally and intellectually, there is an intense need to connect, to promise something better for the children in a space "where what we need and do not have / deadens us." The paradox of promises that "sound like destruction" conveys the burden and complexity of offering hope when systemic issues and practical limitations threaten to undermine it.

The poem employs imagery of winter, of snow clogging passages, as if to illustrate the obstacles in the way of fulfilling these promises. The children are served food "with a frightening efficiency," suggesting that even the provision of basic needs is laden with systemic shortcomings. The students wear "uneasy smiles," indicative of their awareness of these harsh realities. Lorde makes it clear that both the teacher and the students are "elementary forces / colliding in free fall," a vivid description of how they impact each other's lives in unpredictable ways within a system that falls short of nurturing them fully.

"Teacher" is also rich with questions, each exploring the issue of promises and freedom. "Who will say I made promises / better kept in confusion / than time?" the speaker asks, acknowledging that sometimes the nebulousness of a promise may be better than the hard realities of time and circumstance. The poem raises another critical query, "Who will hear freedom's bell deaden / in the clang of the gates of the prisons / where snowmen melt into darkness / unforgiven and so remembered?" This question reaches beyond the classroom, touching on societal failures that convert innocence and play into conditions of imprisonment and unforgiveness.

In the closing lines, the poem revisits the theme of promises, suggesting that the teacher's promises "sprout like wheat from an early spring's wager." This metaphor imbues the promises with potential; they can grow and nourish. But it also leaves the reader with further questions: "Who will hear freedom / ring in the chains of promise / who will forget the curse / of the outsider / who will not recognize our season / as free / who will say / Promise corrupts / what it does not invent?"

By presenting these questions, Lorde challenges the reader to consider the implications of making promises within a system that may not support their fulfillment. Through the lens of a classroom setting, "Teacher" serves as a microcosm for societal dilemmas regarding the limitations and possibilities of change, freedom, and the promises that bind us together in our collective struggle.

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