There are many inequalities in our world. Progress has been made, but institutions and systems continue to favor some groups over others based on traits like race, class, and gender. Without significant change, these systems will limit progress. You can find countless think pieces, research, and academic essays about equality, but poetry captures something unique. Using elements like rhyme, structure, and word choice, poems bring beauty and passion to the table. They can also challenge a reader’s perspective. Here are 10 poems about equality:
“I Dream A World” – Langston Hughes
A major figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes wrote “jazz poetry,” plays, and short stories. His works celebrate black culture while also acknowledging racism and discrimination. In 2015, on Hughes’ 113th birthday, Google featured a doodle of the poet writing on his typewriter. The animated sequence showed lines from the poem “I Dream A World.”
Hughes frequently referenced dreams in his poetry. In this poem, he describes a dream where the world has embraced equality and love. There’s no more racial inequality, everyone is free, and there’s peace. While Hughes was American, his vision applies to the whole world. For those familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, it’s easy to see where Dr. King might have been inspired. Hughes and Dr. King did write letters, but there’s no record of the activist citing Hughes as a possible inspiration for the speech.
“The Anti-Suffragists” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
A recent report showed global gender equality could take as long as 300 years. Why is there still so much of a gap? Who opposes gender equality? It’s not just men. This poem from the American suffragette era calls out the different kinds of women who held back the movement. This includes wealthy women who have all their needs met, “ignorant” (but sometimes college-educated) women, and religious women. While the poem focuses on a specific movement, it reflects the fact that causes are often divided or opposed by people we might assume would be on board. The gender wage gap still exists and some women don’t see it as a problem today.
We want to point out the irony in this poem: Charlotte Perkins Gilman was racist. Her definition of equality does not include women of color. While she chastises different kinds of women in her poem for holding back equality, she herself held views that allowed inequalities to flourish. Poems like this force us to reckon with their authors and consider who they excluded from their narratives.
“the child is not dead” – Ingrid Jonker
Ingrid Jonker (1933-1965) was a South African poet and one of the founders of modern Afrikaans literature. She began writing at just six years old. Her work denounced the National Party’s apartheid system (her father was a leading member of the party), as well as censorship in media and literature. After struggling with her mental health, Jonkers took her own life at just 31 years old. Her work has been widely analyzed and translated into many languages.
One of her most famous poems, “the child is not dead,” was a response to the police violence inflicted on Black South Africans protesting apartheid. Apartheid, which lasted from 1949 to 1991, formalized racial inequality and segregation in South Africa. The freedom and economic opportunities of Black South Africans were severely restricted. Jonker’s poem resonated with protesters and in 1994, Nelson Mandela read the poem aloud during his inaugural State of the Nation address.
“Equality” – Maya Angelou
Writer and activist Maya Angelou (1928-2014) is known for her poetry, memoirs, essays, and more. She’s one of the most important artists in history. Her life included professional dancing, songwriting, lecturing, and writing. The variety of her experiences, unique perspectives, and sharp insight inform her work.
“Equality” addresses racism and discrimination. The poem’s speaker – “I” – stands for all African-Americans. “You” represents white Americans and those preventing equality through direct action or by ignoring the problems. Through repetition, Angelou emphasizes the poem’s message. The line “equality and I will be free” repeats six times like the powerful chorus of a song.
“The Black Unicorn” – Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was a Black poet and feminist. She described herself as “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.” Her poetry focuses on intersecting identities found within race, gender, and class. Before the term was officially coined and well-known, Audre Lorde was an intersectional feminist. Her work centers on injustices and her unwavering spirit to combat them.
There are layers of emotion in “The Black Unicorn.” The first lines describe the black unicorn as “greedy” and “impatient.” These are terms privileged people often use when talking about oppressed groups standing up for their rights. Lorde describes her fury at being mocked, but the emotion continues to grow deep within her. In the last lines, the unicorn is described as “restless” and “unrelenting,” which are more positive variations on the original terms. Why does the black unicorn feel this way? She is not free.
“Let America Be America Again” – Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes returns to our list with this poem from 1935. It builds on many of the themes Hughes wrote about during his career, including disillusionment with America’s hollow promises and hope that the country could someday live up to its own ideals.
Hughes’ poem challenges nostalgia for the “good old days,” as well as the myth of America as a land of equality and freedom. He wrote it while thinking about the difficulties he faced in his career, but he expanded it beyond his personal experiences. He makes references to the farmer, the “worker sold to the machine,” “the man who sailed those early seas,” and others drawn to America’s promises. Those promises have never been fulfilled: “There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.’”
“An Ode We Owe” – Amanda Gorman
Born in Los Angeles, Amanda Gorman was the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history at just 22 years old. She’s performed her work for the Obama White House, the Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, and many other notable audiences. She’s the recipient of many awards. Through her work, she explores topics like oppression, power, feminism, and race.
In 2022, Gorman performed a poem during an appearance at the UN General Assembly. In “An Ode We Owe,” Gorman focuses on the importance of children and young people as change-makers. A message of equality is woven throughout the piece. In one section, Gorman writes:
This morn let it be sworn
That we are one one human kin,
Grounded not just by the griefs
We bear, but by the good we begin.
“Until We Could” – Richard Blanco
This poem boldly celebrates queer love and the fight for marriage equality. It describes a couple first seeing each other across a room. They fall in love and commit to one another, but they can’t get married. Between larger blocks of text, short lines like “Yes, I knew, but still we couldn’t….” express deep longing. Then, triumph, as gay marriage becomes legal in Massachusetts. There’s joy, but also an acknowledgment that there are still couples who can’t marry.
In 2014, the Freedom To Marry Campaign commissioned Richard Blanco to write this poem. It marked the 10th anniversary of gay marriage becoming legal in Massachusetts. One year later, in 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that states with bans on same-sex marriage could no longer enforce them. Gay marriage was finally legal everywhere in the United States.
“All Oppression is Connected” – Staceyann Chin
Staceyann Chin is a Jamaican spoken-word poet, artist, and LGBTQ+ rights activist. She’s been featured in places like The New York Times, The Washington Post, 60 Minutes, and more. She’s won numerous awards for her activism, poetry, and other writing. Her first full-length poetry collection was published in 2019.
“All Oppression is Connected” opens with the line, “Being queer has no bearing on race my white publicist said.” A few lines later, she says, “the New Age claims that sexual, racial and economic freedom has finally come for all,” but it’s a lie. All oppression is connected, Chin cries, and groups who are celebrating victories need to stand with those still suffering. Equality only happens when we understand how oppression is connected. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “No one is free until we are all free.”
“Unity” – Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was a Chilean poet and diplomat who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. He began writing poetry at 13 years and experimented with various styles throughout his career, including surrealist poems, historical epics, and love poems. He’s considered the national poet of Chile and one of the most popular poets of the 20th century.
“Unity” is a striking, complex poem that requires attention from the reader. There are references to physical objects such as stones, water, ivory, leather, and wood, but also more abstract concepts like sleep, age, and time. Neruda describes being “encircled by a single thing, a single movement,” but there are many facets at play in the poem. The final line gives us insight into this paradox between unity and fractured things: “a distant empire of confused unities reunites encircling me.” There are many ways to interpret this poem, but in the context of equality, it demonstrates an understanding of how differences can be reconciled. Pablo Neruda was a socialist, so he always reckoned with the complexities of unifying many different groups. As the poem explores, things don’t have to melt into a single identity to be unified. When working for a more just, equal society, all parts of that society should come together.
