Forgiving my father lucille clifton

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Part I

For this assignment I have selected the poem “Forgiving my Father” by Lucille Clifton. I am interested in analysing the language of the poem, the emotions of the poem, and the significance of the title. In the poem, Clifton uses many terms like “bills,” “payment,” “pocket,” “debtors” etc. to highlight that her relationship with her father was much more like an investment transaction. As readers, we get the feeling that her relationship with her father was very bad and she felt like he owed her mother a lot of money. Secondly, the emotions of the poem are very strong and powerful. One gets a strong feeling of hatred but also of a kind of helplessness against the fact that he is after all her father. The poem is full of tragic emotions that highlight the dysfunctional relationships between a family and how they have continued to generations as is apparent from the writers line “…you were the only son to a needy father the father of a needy son;” The title of the poem shows that the writer is trying to forgive her father and get over the tragedy that he has caused in her life and that of her mother’s but we can also see that she is struggling with it and having a really hard time forgiving him due to the things he did.

Part II

Thesis: The poem is full of anger and dejection yet its title still suggests an attitude of forgiveness and moving on which points towards a transformative aspect of the poem.

Explanation:

The thesis of this poem focuses on how the writer makes peace between the title of the poem and the emotional energies that the poem itself carries. The thesis also contains the idea of transformation and aims at exploring the ways in which the writer is able to confront their hatred and anger and transform it into forgiveness and compassion for her father.