Hate Poem

Published in 2006, “Hate Poem” was written at a time when Sheehan was simultaneously working on her collections Bar Book (2010) and Orient Point (2006). The poem is in some ways typical of her body of work, written in a conversational style, in free verse, and influenced by Walt Whitman’s long, loose stanzas that avoid traditional forms. Unlike the long verses and paragraph-style poems of Bar Book, or the more traditional forms like the sonnet or ghazal used in Orient Point, “Hate Poem” is only moderately structured.

The themes of “Hate Poem” are very typical of Sheehan’s work, as she often writes about domestic life, children, and relationships. The poem has the same playful tone of some of her other poems—Bar Book, for instance, has poems written from the point of view of personified cocktails—and just like in her other work, the jokey quality intersects with the poem’s darker and more intense subject matter. Overall, the poem fits well with her greater collection of works which are packed with verbal energy, formal and organic elements, and vivid imagination.