Lorde's poems [in Coal] are concerned most often with the mystery and variety of love relationships…. Her poems are often angry and bitter, etched in vitriol on the stark page. (p. 762)

But the total impact of the poems is positive. Audre Lorde is secure in the knowledge of her worth as person and poet. Lines from the title poem, "Coal," might stand as an epigraph for the entire volume.

               I am Black because I come from
                  the earth's inside
               now take my word for jewel in
                  the open light.

Public pressures on her private world have made Lorde a poet of diamond-hard intensity. (p. 763)