Influences In Lucille Clifton's Poems

Influences are something that every person has, whether it is purposeful or accidental. Influences are in everything, such as family and even work. In poetry, the author sometimes expresses their family dynamics through their writing, letting these dynamics shape not only their lives, but also their works. With some of these dynamics being from the Great Depression, these elements in Hayden’s works through his always working adoptive father, Clifton’s works through her deceased father, and Roethke’s works through his deceased father. Parents are the most influential people in a person’s life, whether it is in a good way or a bad way, and even if they are adoptive parents. This being said, many poet’s work is fueled by the influences that their …show more content…
When Hayden says “Speaking indifferently to him, /who had driven out the cold/and polished my good shoes as well” it seems that he has created a mental mentor or a silent hero of his adoptive father (Hayden 1). Later on in his life and other works, Hayden often always wrote about tough situations, but always had a plot twist of a happy ending (Faulkner 1). Nevertheless, this was different for poet Lucille Clifton. Clifton says in her poem “all week you have stood in my dreams/ like a ghost, asking for more time” (Clifton 289). In this poem, she was talking about her father, whom had just died. Her father was a hard-working man who provided for his family, however, was not a gentleman and created turmoil for Clifton and her mother. Clifton’s father worked at the New York steel mill, while her mother was a stay at home wife, but was also an aspiring poet. This inspired Clifton and gave her a new love, until her father came in and ruined it for her. Her father made her mother throw out and burn all of her poetry, henceforth destroying not only her mother’s dreams but Clifton’s (Sandmann 1). This shifted Clifton’s mind and personality. From this point Clifton saw her father as an enemy. Clifton …show more content…
However, it was not just the parents losing hope, it was also the children, who would grow into the leading people of the world. The children of the Great Depression often lost hope and could not find it within their parents. This forced them to have to find it by themselves, which was a struggle, but some way they pushed through and foresaw a better future. Hayden was one of those children that lost hope at a very young age. Being abandoned as a child, he was often in chronic fear. Saying in one of his works “and slowly I would rise and dress, /fearing the chronic angers of that house” (Hayden 289). Having lost hope at such a young age, his life was largely influenced and largely affected, which in turn made him call himself a “realist”. Faulkner is saying through this, that even though Hayden would turn the situations into having a happy ending, the situations he wrote about were the real and honest truth behind the situation. Faulkner said that Hayden “distrusts so-called reality.” However, Hayden found his hope again through his writing by writing about the current reality longing for a perfect reality of peace (Faulkner 1). Poet Lucille Clifton was another poet whom had lost hope and regained it through her writing. Clifton was once