Postcolonial Love Poem

“Postcolonial Love Poem” has no rhyme, meter, or conventional form. The single 41-line stanza initially reads as a stream-of-conscious meditation, yet the poem’s technical use of language reveals the skill on display. Diaz’s rejection of classical forms supports her poem’s postcolonial themes and her desire to center the Indigenous experience.

Diaz uses antithesis and paradox to express the contradictions of her experience.

Antithesis is the juxtaposition of two opposites to create a contrasting effect. For example, the speaker “wage[s] love and worse” (Line 6). Their sexual intimacy is described as “pleasure to hurt” (Line 15). Love is reimagined as a negative in these juxtapositions.

Paradox is a contradictory idea that ultimately contains an unexpected truth. The speaker “learned Drink in a country of drought” (Line 14). This contrast between the word and the culture underscores the emptiness of the promises of the colonialist culture. The ongoing conflict of living as an Indigenous woman in America is described as “the war never ended and somehow begins again” (Line 41). While colonialism began in the past, it is still ongoing, and the effects are felt even more deeply because of the paradox.