"Milk And Honey" By Rupi Kaur: Poetry About Violence

Milk and honey is a poetry collection made up of four chapters: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing. The titles of these chapters give insight to the topics and tones of these poems, where the hurting, for example, will be of a touching subject in a negative tone, since it is about a person's feeling of pain. the hurting begins with a spread that has two poems. One long poem and one short with a hand-drawn image of a woman's body around it. The long poem is divided into four chapters spaced out on the page, while the shorter poem is in the center of the page as one chapter. The shorter poem is poisoned in-between the thighs of the woman drawn around it. This indicates to the reader what the poem is about: sex. The first poem begins with a first kiss. The poem indicates the boy treats the girl as the first bicycle he ever rode, by telling how her shoulders were held down like handlebars. The words "held down" describes the feeling of suffocation, as a head being held down underwater. Kaur uses specifically chosen words so that the reader associates them with a certain feeling. The chapter ends in with three words, telling the audience how she was five when this happened.

So her first interaction with sexual abuse happened at a young age. Kaur appeals to the reader's emotion by showing how the actions of adults affect children, as readers are more sympathetic towards children The second chapter goes on to talk about the inner rage the boy had in him and refers to it as the "starvation". This word is used when talking about extreme hunger, a radical state of mind. The anger the boy has is said to have been learned from his father and how he treats the boy's mother. Rupi Kaur uses the word "feasting" when she talks about what the boy's father does to his mother at 4 a. m. The words used (starvation, feasting) are figurative language and bring to mind something primal and inhumane since these words are often used to describe wild animals. The third chapter of this poem tells how from this experience she learned her body is meant for the use of others and that she is nothing. This is a common feeling when victims have been violated and are often described by victims of sexual assault and abuse. In the fourth chapter, the girl and the boy's mother both feel the same way after being violated, the mother at 4. 25 a. m. and the girl after that kiss. Here Kaur expresses to the reader how victims are not alone, there are many others who have experienced the same and who also feel the same way.

The second poem on the next page is in the shape of a diamond and positioned between a woman's thighs, as it is meant to represent the female reproductive organ. This poem is written in the second person but the pronoun you is directed towards women. It describes how a woman's legs are a pit stop for men and how they are just a vacant body. Kaur uses a metaphor, pit stop, which brings to mind a gas station, where you don't stay for long but quickly use. The words vacant body imply the women are nothing but an object to these men, again describing something inhumane. The poem also talks about how men are guests that never stay, which is a reflection of how in our community women are used only for sexual pleasure and then the men leave, instead of committing to the relationship. Kaur's approach to sexual abuse is feminist, as she is trying to prove that sexual assault is wrong and a problem in our society. She aims to show how in a gender equal world, sexual abuse would not be happening. Her view is biased as she herself identifies as a female and she portrays the attacker as males and victims as females, but her view is justified as most commonly reported sexual abuse cases, the roles are as is. Both poems view sexual assault from a traumatic narrative as the victim.

Because the poems are written without any punctuations or capital letters, the writing seems small and unimportant, which emphasizes the fact that these poems are written from a victims point of view. Kaur tries to show the audience using her emotionally powered language and specifically chosen words, what it feels like being empty, used, and aims for the reader to sympathize with the victim. Kaur's poetry is very current and contributes to the #MeToo movement which is about promoting "empowerment through empathy" and bringing stories of sexual abuse and assault to light, as Kaur has done in her poetry.