They Don't Love You Like I Love You

The 42-line lyric poem is arranged in 14 three-line stanzas, with fairly regular line length. Though the stanzaic pattern is regular, the poem is written in unmetered, unrhymed verse. However, the relatively short lines – the longest lines of the poem contain 9-10 words – the vocabulary loaded with primary words such as love, blood, and milk, and the frequent inclusion of song-lyrics give the poem a musical quality. Most of the poem’s words use one (my, said, this, me) to three (Beyonce, begging, mother) syllables, with vowel sounds stressed and pronounced, creating internal music.

Additionally, the poet uses literary devices such as alliteration to add internal melody and rhythm to the poem. The intimate “m” sound is repeated in alliterations throughout the poem, drawing in the reader. It can be found in phrases such as “my mother” (Lines 1, 4, 21, and more) and “so many of mine” (Lines 10). Another example of alliteration is in the phrase “loud lights” (Line 25). These repeated sounds create a feeling of constant movement, constant running, repeating the patterns and echoing the violence, the history, the vigilance, and the feeling of persecution that continuously follows the speaker throughout her life.