Summary:
Stanza I opens with a startling change: the things that once caused the speaker to feel "love" now cause him "a thousand instances of fear." The speaker then offers two images that are meant to evoke this fear: "the tree's shadow / winding around the chair, a distant music / of frozen birds rattling / in the cold." The first image of the "tree's shadow" is specific—the speaker says "the" rather than "a" when relaying the scene. Because a chair is generally made of wood and trees produce wood, this image is peculiar and has threatening undertones. The tree stretches much taller than the chair, but "tree's shadow" predatorily "wind(s)" around the chair, suppressing it with its influence. Furthermore, the sound of the frozen bodies of birds "rattling" in the cold is described as "music," which endows a a visceral and disturbing scene of death with positive attributes. Both images deal with the natural world but twist nature in unexpected and unsettling ways. These unsettling images contribute to the overall mood of the poem, which is discussed below.
In Stanza II, the speaker reveals that his flesh is not completely separated from his soul. In fact, his flesh and his spirit are inseparable, because every time he goes to find his body, he finds "entrances / of spirit." This flesh/spirit combination is alien to the speaker, who "strains to understand" its "hideous uses." By "hideous uses," the speaker probably means things that the body/spirit demands of the speaker, including bodily "comforts." Thus, the speaker sees things that usually feel good for the body as foreign and disgusting. This idea relates to the first stanza, in which the speaker found that things he once loved now cause him fear. These changes in the speaker's feelings about his environment and himself motivate his metamorphosis into a more authentic being.
The rhythm picks up at Stanza III, which concerns the speaker's relationship with the public. The speaker reveals that he is a man who is "loud" when it comes to his changes of self. These changes constitute some sort of re-"birth" in which the speaker's very being is re-created. A key word—"birth"—is also included in these lines, which suggests that the speaker's metamorphosis isn't all bad, but instead an unavoidable and natural event. The speaker "publicly redefine(s)" these changes and therefore broadcasts them to an audience as they are happening. This public broadcasting suggests that the speaker had "predicted" the changes in his soul, though there is little evidence to suggest that the speaker has much control over them. These changes are characterized by a "chanting weight" that changes the passive speaker. The speaker reveals that he has "profited" from these changes in a huge and spiritual way, even though they have "erased familiarity / from [his] face." It is left ambiguous as to whether the speaker is left less familiar to the public or to himself after his metamorphosis. Either way, it is significant that a change in his soul affects the way his physical body is understood. This re-emphasizes the theme of separation/unity of the body and soul, which was addressed in the paragraph above. This stanza ends with a sentence fragment—"A question I think"—which is enjambed onto the next stanza.
In Stanza IV, the speaker continues the thought from the previous stanza and asserts that the "question" may also be "an answer." What is being referenced is "whatever sits / counting the minutes / till you die." Though it is left ambiguous as to what this question/answer is, one might assume it refers to the metamorphosis that was explained in the previous stanza. The question/answer of this Stanza IV can also be understood as the question in the final stanza that concludes the poem.
Stanza V is the only stanza in "The Liar" that is in the future tense—the speaker imagines a future scenario in which an unnamed group will say "'It is Roi / who is dead.'" This causes the speaker to ask a question: "I wonder / who will they mean?" This rhetorical question has multiple meanings: (1) either the speaker is questioning which version of himself (pre- or post-metamorphosis) the group is talking about, (2) or the past version of himself is so alien to his present self that the speaker doesn't even know who they are talking about. The final lines of this poem also suggest that (3) the speaker does not yet know what version of himself will emerge after the metamorphosis has completed, and therefore doesn't yet know which parts of himself will die.
The future tense is significant in this stanza because the speaker assumes that this will happen after his transformation. It is particularly poignant to note that Baraka changed his name from LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka after going through his own metamorphosis of self and leaving the mostly white cultural center of Greenwich Village for the Black Arts movement of the Harlem Renaissance. Thus, even though this poem was published when Baraka still went by LeRoi Jones, he might have foreseen his own metamorphosis, which was already in the works.
Analysis:
Form
It is hard to break up "The Liar" into a set of stanzas that break cleanly on the page. For the purposes of this guide, we have broken up the poem into five stanzas: Stanza I (lines 1-6), Stanza II (lines 7-11), Stanza III (12-23), Stanza IV (lines 24-6), and Stanza V (lines 27-9). However, it is more important to note that this poem utilizes unconventional form than to try and figure out where, exactly, the stanzas are. The form actually becomes much less strict as the poem progresses, making an active break with poetic tradition. Stanza I (lines 1-6) is a tight block of lines that all have a similar length, while Stanza III (12-23) drops down diagonally across the page.
In terms of genre, "The Liar" is a lyric poem because it expresses the mood and thoughts of a particular speaker. Almost every line in this poem contains enjambment, in which sentences are broken up by line breaks and continued on the next line. Enjambments help to heighten the rhythm of "The Liar" as well as create a sense of cohesiveness in a poem that does not have very strict form. Because form and content are inseparable in poetry, it is interesting to note that Baraka chose to utilize a form that spreads out over the page rather than a form that merely uses left-justified lines. The unconventional usage of forms speaks to a breaking of tradition within the lyric convention. This is very fitting since the speaker of the poem breaks from his original self through a process of metamorphosis.
Who, really, is the speaker of "The Liar"? (Also consult "Characters" and "Literary Elements" sections for further discussion on the speaker.)
The speaker of "The Liar" "publicly redefine(s)" his soul over the course of the poem. The speaker, therefore, narrates a change in himself which he experiences passively. Rather than actively choosing to change his emotional impulses, the speaker "find(s)" that what he once loved now causes him fear in Stanza I. The speaker does not fully understand himself, and he cannot fully separate his body from his soul in order to sufficiently comprehend them. The speaker uses formal language throughout "The Liar," which adds importance to the theme of metamorphosis of self. It is significant that the speaker describes this metamorphosis in formal language because it suggests that the poem is meant to be read and understood by a larger audience as a "public" metamorphosis of self. The speaker's analytical scope is turned in on himself, and the entire poem evaluates his relationship with the rest of the world.
We might be able to conclude from the poem that the speaker has an active public persona in which he is scrutinized by others. The speaker also has use of a platform through which he can "publicly redefin(e)" himself for some sort of audience. He is at once someone who is focused on his surroundings and turned inward; he is concerned with his relationship with the public even though they cannot fully influence his decisions.
It is very dangerous to assume that the poet and the speaker of a poem are the same person, but one might relate the speaker of the poem to Baraka himself through the theme of metamorphosis of self and the appearance of a "Roi" (Baraka's nickname when he was LeRoi Jones) in the last stanza. Thus, the situation of the poem suggests that the speaker of the poem is very similar to Baraka himself at the publication of the poem, who historically was very public about his personal decisions and identity. Refer to the "About the Author" section of this guide to read more about Baraka's own metamorphosis of self.
The title of this poem complicates our understanding of the speaker. If the speaker himself is the "liar," then everything he says is put into question. As the reader, we cannot know whether everything in the poem is accurate or even true based on this fact. Additionally, the question is raised as to what, specifically, the speaker might be lying about. This question is discussed more in the "The Complicated Title of 'The Liar'" section of this guide.
Meter/Rhythm
There is no established meter in "The Liar," but Baraka does occasionally evoke musical registers in order to heighten the emotion at crucial moments of the poem. For example, the line breaks in the opening lines of Stanza III speed up the voice and highlight those lines as particularly important: "Though I am a man / who is loud / on the birth / of his ways." Each line is anchored around a phrase that has three distinct syllables; the only lines that do not have three syllables are the opening and closing lines of this passage. This rhythmic passage emphasizes the speaker's self-awareness and self-reflection as well as heightening the concession that this metamorphosis is a public one, and therefore open to criticism from others. Moments of musical rhythm in "The Liar" also evoke the "chanting weight" of the speaker's metamorphoses, which unifies content and form in this poem and suggests that the poem itself is a physical representation of the speaker's metamorphosis.
Tone/Mood
The mood of "The Liar" is ominous and unsettling. The overall tone of the poem is very serious and self-reflective; it is clear that the speaker is dealing with very important subject matter when it comes to his metamorphosis of self. The poem ends on the subject of the speaker's own death, which certainly does not leave the reader in a positive frame of mind. Additionally, the poem opens with frightening physical representations of two things the speaker once loved but now fears: a "tree's shadow" and "frozen birds." These images are creepy because they employ dark language that is meant to be eerie, such as "shadow," "frozen," and "rattling." Additionally, they constitute scenes that one can never actually see in nature—it would be very hard to see a tree's shadow encircling any object because as a straight object, a tree's shadow would be linear, and one might see the frozen carcasses of dead birds but it would be nearly impossible to hear those carcasses "rattling" in the wind. Thus, these images constitute an alienation from nature, which heightens the feelings of uneasiness and unnaturalness.
Biblical Imagery
A significant aspect of "The Liar" is the Christian biblical imagery throughout the poem. The speaker equates his metamorphosis with a "birth," which suggests renewal rather than destruction. The word "birth" also has Christian connotations of salvation, since it is believed that converting to Christianity constitutes a type of "rebirth." Additionally, the speaker asserts that he has "profited, biblically" from changes in his soul, which equates his new discovery of self to the kind of salvation that is offered through religion. Additionally, "chanting weight" that creates physical change in Stanza III evokes ritual spirituality. All of this biblical imagery emphasizes the importance of the speaker's metamorphosis, who equates it to a kind of religious experience through which he may find salvation.
Major Themes
(1) Metamorphosis of Self
The first major theme of "The Liar" is the metamorphosis of self. In this poem, the speaker's metamorphosis of self is generated by self-reflection and self-analysis. In Stanza I, the speaker realizes that his emotional responses to the world are not what he thought them to be and in Stanza II he analyzes the relationship between his body and spirit (discussed below). The speaker does not keep this metamorphosis to himself but instead publicly relays it, as he has done before for previous metamorphoses (Stanza III). Readers are given the sense that even though this metamorphosis has already begun, it is not complete by the time the poem has finished. Instead, the speaker imagines a future in which the metamorphosis is complete and the public will assert "'It is Roi / who is dead'" (Stanza V). It is important to note that while this metamorphosis has significant consequences, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, the speaker sees it as an opportunity for "birth" and self-discovery.
(2) Relationship Between the Body & Soul
Stanza II in particular closely analyzes the relationship between the body and soul in this poem. The speaker asserts that for himself, the body and the soul are basically inseparable: "Where ever I go to claim / my flesh, there are entrances / of spirit." Because the speaker cannot separate his body from his soul, a change in his soul causes a change his body—the "chanting weight" caused by changes in his soul "erased familiarity / from [his] face." Thus, the poem poses a poignant question: where is personhood? Changes in the body seem to be generated by changes in the soul, but the two things are so entangled that it is impossible to know for sure.
