Hate Poem

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2006

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Hate Poem” is written in Free Verse, without a rhyme scheme or visible stanza structure. The poem is a monologue, written as if spoken aloud, in a relatively conversational tone that is sometimes succinct, and sometimes organic. The poem’s longer stanzas have an uneven number of lines (five, six, four, and seven), and are punctuated with two shorter, one-line stanzas. The first one-line stanza is a comedic device separating groups of images in the first and third stanzas. The second one-line stanza walls off the last two verses of the poem, which shift between the fifth stanza’s quick thoughts punctuated by the word “hate,” to the sixth stanza’s longer, more complex sentences with multiple clauses that span two lines. This has the effect of following a sporadic thought pattern, as the speaker recalls all the ways she hates her partner.

While there is no rhyme scheme, Sheehan’s use of repetition adds rhythm to the poem, with many sentences repeating “hates you” (Lines 3-6, 8-11) at the end, or simply “hate” (Lines 14-17; 21). This echo adds to the poem performative quality, and the sound eventually culminates in the rhyme, “Layers of hate, a parfait” (Line 20). This “parfait” is a humorous reference to the visual “layers” of each line that come together in the poem to resemble a parfait of hate for the partner.

Humor

“Hate Poem” thrives on the balance between seething hate and comedic levity to communicate the complexity of the speaker’s anger in this moment. Humor makes the poem accessible to anyone who has found themselves even slightly annoyed by their partner “as [they] pick out the cashews” (Line 10) or the desire to be contemptuous in the face of them doing something nice like “invit[ing] me for a drive” (Line 15). The poem’s insistence on the speaker’s unreasonable and overwhelming hate connects the reader to that childish part of the self that is clings to self-righteous indignation after a big argument is over. Some of the poem’s humor borders on the absurd; for instance, in a truly random aside the speaker envisions her “tiniest bones were they trapped in the jaws of a moray eel” (Line 5) as the possible expression of hate, and invokes “the goldfish of my genius” (Line 11), undercutting the seriousness of the poem and poking some fun at herself. Without humor, “Hate Poem” would truly be a hate poem, rather than one in which—as Sheehan herself suggested in an interview—every instance of the word “hate” could be switched for the word “love” without losing the poem’s meaning. Its humor demonstrates the proximity of love and hate, and the complexity of negotiating an imperfect relationship as an imperfect adult.

Hyperbole

Sheehan’s use of hyperbole adds to the energy of the poem, as she exaggerates the speaker’s hatred for her partner to comedic effect. In the opening verses of the poem she declares, “Everything about me hates everything about you” (Line 2), which the reader later comes to realize is an overstatement about one’s chosen long-term companion. As she lists off the ways in which she hates, her imagery gets increasingly smaller and smaller, so that even the cells of her body are “singing” (Line 6) with this hate. She takes her hate into hypotheticals, with the over-the-top assertion that “The sound made by my tiniest bones were they trapped in the jaws of a moray eel hates you” (Line 5), just as she revels completely in the metaphoric dissection of her lover, “so that I might hate each one individually and at leisure” (line 22). Her hate is thorough, methodical, precise, and a complete overreaction to what is just the “latest row” (Line 21) in their settled life. Although its use is primarily comical, the poem’s hyperbole also reflects the very real feelings many have in the aftermath of an argument, when adrenaline is still pumping and feelings of anger seem permanent. Sheehan’s speaker is surely not the only one who has gleefully reveled in the “utter validity” (Line 23) of that hate, blowing it up in her mind as she tries to justify the grudge she still carries.