“Forgiving My Father” by Lucille Clifton is a poem about a daughter who believes that he dad owes money for what she has put her and her mother through. The speaker constantly uses words throughout the poem that have to do with money; words like payday, bills, rich, pocket, bargain, collection, debtor, and accounting. The speaker also uses the word “Friday” a few times because she understands that her daddy is supposed to get paid on Fridays.
The speaker is very harsh towards her father in the beginning of the poem. In lines 3 and 4 it says, “All week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time.” She says “like a ghost” indicating that her father is dead to her at this point. It is very hard for the speaker to forgive her father at this point because he has ruined their family and that lead to the cause of the mothers death. But the speaker does not put all of the blame on the father; she also blames the mother for letting things go this far and lead to such tragedy. Even after the mother’s death, the daughter (speaker) comes to collect from her father. In line 10 and 11 she says, “I wish you were rich so I could take it all and give the lady what she was due.”
In line 12 of the poem the speaker takes some of the blame off of the father when she says, “But you were the son of a needy father, the father of a needy son.” She is going back to the childhood of her own father and saying that his father may be responsible for his actions because he was raised in a similar household.
One of the problems I think the speaker bounces back and forth from throughout the poem is whether or not she should forgive her father for what he has done, or if she should try and get even with him. From the speaker’s point of view, I wouldn’t blame her for being harsh to her father and coming to collect from him. If you look at it from her angle he affected her life tremendously so why wouldn’t she want to even the scores with him? But on the other hand, it is her father. Nobody wants to be fighting with their father no matter how much they have done wrong. I know from personal experience that fathers can be a pain in the neck, especially to their sons. I went through a time where I saw my dad everyday then we got in one little fight and didn’t speak for 6 months. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through and there wasn’t 1 day out of those 6 months that I didn’t look at his name in my phone and want to call him. The love is there no matter what the child may think of the father. So I can see Lucille Clifton wanting to be upset, but I think in the end it isn’t worth it.
1 comment:
Although the mother puts up with her marriage to keep peace for her child, the author tells this poem through the child’s point of you and by the reading, it seems the child knows exactly how his parents’ marriage is. The child seems to blame his father for the way their family has turned out and resents his father for it. The father seems to only care about the money he makes and taking credit for caring for his wife and child without physically or emotionally being there for them when needed.
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