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Overall Summary

Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose by Indian-born Canadian poet Rupi Kaur. The book was published in 2014, after she self-published it, making it onto the New York Times bestseller list. It sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide because of its universal relatability on women’s issues.

The collection is divided into four sections. The first section discusses pain and suffering, while the second section talks about love. The third section deals with breakups and heartbreaks, as well as healing from those experiences. Most of the poems are short, consisting of one page or less of text with accompanying drawings in ink by Kaur.

The first section of the book, “The Hurting,” focuses on the experience of pain. The poems in this section are written in the first person; after reading several of these poems, it becomes obvious that the speaker is inhabiting a female’s perspective and discussing trials and tribulations that women face growing up and especially about sexual abuse from an early age. There are disturbing references to incest, which can be used to infer that the writer experienced sexual trauma at her own father’s hands. The speaker also asserts that she is not alone in these experiences: they happen often among women, especially Indian women.

The speaker in the second section is an adult, and she has overcome her past. She now wants to enjoy sex with a loving partner. The way she was abused growing up has changed how she feels about men, so it’s hard for her to trust them. However, as time goes on and she heals from that abuse, she realizes that there are some good guys out there who want to be with her because they love her rather than use her body for their pleasure or gain.

The third section is the longest of the collection. Towards the end of “The Loving” passage, there’s a moment where it becomes clear that although she has learned to experience love and positive feelings with her partner, their relationship is by no means perfect. In fact, they argue more than they should. The speaker ends up breaking up with him in “The Breaking.” She writes about how lonely and lost she feels after this breakup and how it makes her think about all the women he will be with in his future life without her. It seems like something that happened to me when I was going through a very real breakup some time ago: You know you have to let go but you can’t help thinking about what your ex would be doing if things had worked out differently between you two—if only…

The final section of the book, “The Healing”, talks about how to heal after a breakup and beyond that, from the wounds sustained in the first section. The speaker is trying to affirm her self-worth and not appeal to men or try to seek love outside herself but be able to seek comfort and love on her own. The speaker is experiencing a moment of growth as she realizes that solitude can actually bring positive changes and feelings of inner strength when one recognizes their self-reliance.

In the end, she is hopeful and positive because all of her past experiences have inspired her to become a better person. She hopes that other women who have gone through similar situations will be able to learn from her experiences and grow as well.