Gwendolyn Bennett: Poetry Quotes

Quotes

"Hating you shall be a game

Played with cool hands

And slim fingers."

Bennett, "Hatred"

Bennett chooses to view her ex as an object to be hated. In the absence of her lover's affection, she occupies her time with a deliberate occupation of hatred. Rather than concede her despair and pain, she insists that this hateful game will satisfy her.

"While none may know the pains nor hear the groans

Of she who lived with barrenness upon the earth."

Bennett, "Epitaph"

Bennett wishes she had a child, but in "Epitaph" she communicates despair, imagining a future where she has missed her last chance at motherhood. To her, this is a silent sentence which nobody can help. In her lifetime, she remained unfulfilled by this desire for motherhood, but in her death at least she wants her corpse to feed new growth.

"I want to breathe the Lotus flow'r,

Sighing to the stars

With tendrils drinking at the Nile...."

Bennett, "Heritage"

In "Heritage" Bennett expresses her desire to visit Egypt, where her family comes from. The Lotus was a psychedelic used at parties by the ancient Egyptians. To Bennett, this flower retains its mystical purpose, connected forever to the place of their origin. Similarly, she identifies with the Lotus, also retaining a link to Egypt throughout her wandering.

"We cry aloud against the limits of our speech,

And I say simply, acknowledging our sheer defeat,

That love for you shall last within my heart so long as it shall beat."

Bennett, "Untitled"

Bennett strains against the limits of language in describing the bond between her and her lover. Although the word "love" seems insufficient, she has yet to find anything better to express the fullness of her love.

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