This Morning I Pray for My Enemies

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

A single, orderly block of text, “This Morning I Pray for My Enemies” is written without distinctive meter, rhyme, or formal structure. Presented in one stanza, Harjo’s nine lines each stand on their own as questions or statements. There is some variation of line length, with two lines standing out as shorter: the initial question and the description of the heart seeing and knowing everything (Line 6). The final line is unique in length, as well as being one of only two lines that contain two clauses connected by a comma. Overall, the poem is deceptively arranged: It appears to be organized or arranged somehow to achieve a structure, but actually resists containment at every turn.

Punctuation

The punctuation in “This Morning I Pray for My Enemies” is an interesting aspect of the poem’s structure, frequently altering the meaning of the text in specific ways. The rhetorical question posed in the first sentence sets up the remainder of the poem; the question mark is almost an invitation to the reader to continue forward. After the initial query, the remaining lines each end in a period. Though in some cases this kind of terse, line-ending punctuation could read as creating a staccato effect or building urgency, in Harjo’s poem, the periods serve to slow the reader and cause them to take thoughtful pause after each line. Each statement stands alone as a cohesive thought requiring a pause. The use of the periods is also heightened by two commas, in Line 4 and Line 9, where the comma connects two contrasting aspects of the poem: first the heart and mind and later, an enemy and a friend. By using commas in these two lines, Harjo builds the strength of the other statements—whether they contain two ideas or only one—as self-contained ideas of the poem.

Assonance

Though Harjo’s poem uses little rhyme or metered rhythm, it is not a piece lacking in linguistic complexity or musical quality. This is a hallmark of Harjo’s talent as a poet: She crafts interesting sounding poems that do not rely on traditional structures or formats. In “This Morning I Pray for My Enemies,” Harjo’s assonant use of -ing helps connect sounds and ideas between lines and across the poem as a whole. The suffix is attached to words in several lines: “walking” (Line 3), “everything” (Line 6), “gnashing” (Line 7), and “blessing” (Line 7). Additionally, the title contains “morning.” Taken together, these words alone symbolically capture much of the movement and tension reflected by the narrative arc of the poem. Three of the five times -ing is added to a word is at the culmination of a line, which means that when read out loud, the poem also rhythmically builds on itself without distinctly rhyming.

Juxtaposition

Though it’s a short poem, “This Morning I Pray for My Enemies” contains a number of opposing images or phrases that work to make meaning over the course of the text. Harjo includes two kinds of juxtapositions in the piece: symbolic contrasts between specific images or ideas and physical arrangement of text to push together two ideas. Overall, the poem reads as a piece with a core tension that is relatively unresolved by the end; this is primarily a function of the included juxtaposition.

Metaphorically, a number of ideas or images are placed in relationship with each other as opposites. At the most basic level, the speaker, “I” (Line 1) is placed in a negative relationship with the “enemy” (Line 1). The three early placements of “I” nearby the “enemy” (Title, Line 1, Lines 2-3) clearly establish that the speaker and their enemies are in conflict with one another. Another juxtaposed set of symbolic ideas are the “mind” and “heart” (Lines 4 and 8). Much like the speaker and their enemies, the mind and heart are two separate entities who have trouble connecting in the manner the speaker would like. By repeatedly placing the mind and the heart in symbolic tension with each other, Harjo emphasizes the difficulty of resolving the relationship and challenges the reader to think about this issue on their own.

On the syntactic level, “This Morning” has two particularly interesting lines that break from the established structure of the poem: In Lines 4 and 9, Harjo includes two clauses joined by a comma. Every other line is a single declarative statement—and, in one case, a question—with singular punctuation. Lines 4 and 9 are unique both in construction, and, therefore, in their contribution to the larger ideas of the poem. In each phrase, the juxtaposition of a positive, emotional idea is placed in tension with a more negative, difficult one. Line 4 describes the contrast between the questioning “heart” and the “furious” mind, while Line 9 closes the poem with the image of an enemy “who gets in” risking “becoming a friend.” It is possible to read these two lines as connected: It is the furious mind in Line 4 that restricts the speaker from letting in their enemies, just as it is the curious heart that can open the door to shift the relationship the speaker has with the enemy in the first place. By physically arranging these two lines to forefront the juxtaposing ideas, Harjo turns the reader’s attention to the possible shifts that could occur for the speaker or for anyone else thinking about relationships with others.