Lucille Clifton Forgiving My Father

The poem “forgiving my father”, written in 1969 by Lucille Clifton, is a poem that shows the harsh reality of a daughter who has lost her mother and lives with the debt of her father haunting her. Some might question if both parents are deceased but I believe only her mother is dead, “My mother’s hand opens in her early grave” (Clifton, 6), shows that her mother has passed away early. The speaker in the poem, the daughter of the two parents, displays her emotional detachment from her father. Lucille Clifton let’s the reader know the speaker is the daughter of the family on line seven, “and I hold it out like a good daughter.” (Clifton, 7) The speaker informs us that she is haunted by the memories of conflict between her parents and takes her mother’s side in the weekly disputes of money. The daughter said, “but today is payday, payday old man” (Clifton, 5) and I believe this is her way of saying her father owes money for all that he has put her mother through mentally and financially. This gloomy poem is sad reality of an atrocious father. …show more content…
The speaker finds it hard to forgive her father because she believes he has torn apart the family. But, I also believe the daughter casts some of the blame on her mother for sticking it out and staying with her husband because she says, “you were each other’s bad bargain, not mine” (Clifton, 9). The speaker wants us to know that both of the parents have responsibility within the situation. The daughter felt like the problems were strictly between her mother and father because she did not want to deal with all of the stress that was left