Forgiving My Father 2d4412

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Divina Ricco Mr. D’Onofrio ENG-4U1 Monday April 13, 2015 “forgiving my father”: New Criticism Analysis The title of Lucille Clifton's poem, "forgiving my father", seems to be in sharp opposition with the poem itself. There seems to be no forgiveness, yet the title claims that it is there. Many tensions, ironies, paradoxes, oppositions, and ambiguities can be found in the poem. The poem focuses on the debt of the speaker's father. Clifton is using a monetary debt to symbolize a debt of love and affection. She uses this symbolism to show that by the end of the poem, she has forgiven her father, but it is not forgiveness as one would normally think of it. In the first stanza one can see the ambiguity of the word “paying”. “Paying” could mean to pay a bill or to pay someone a debt of money that is owed. A daughter is in her father’s grave grieving because she wants to forgive her father for the bad treatment she and her mother received from him. Clifton uses words such as “bills”, “payday”, and “rich”, “due”, “pocket”, “bargain”, “collecting”, “debtors”, and “ing” as single metaphors to describe money as an extended metaphor throughout the poem. The daughter forgave the “old dead man” (Line 19) despite her feelings of him being only able for the shortcomings. The daughter claimed that there would never be enough time for her father to repay all the monetary and emotional debt he owed to the family. The daughter was “side by side in debtor’s boxes” (line 22) to symbolize the lack of love and affection from her father. The father did not provide the love he should have provided to the family to keep their relationship alive. He left her nothing but the

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haunting memories of him in her dreams. Clifton uses the simile “All week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost asking for more time” (line 4). Unfortunately, for the father, there wasn’t time left for him, so it was up to the daughter to forgive him. The daughter didn’t want to live with memories of her father and how he wasn’t the “best father,” towards her, so it was up to her to forgive him and what he has done. In the second stanza the irony is seen in the way she addresses her father. For example, “there is no more time for you. there will never be time enough daddy, daddy, old lecher old liar.” (Line 8-10) The tone expresses anger, irony and hatred. There is so much anger irony and hatred towards her father because maybe the speaker was, sexually abused by her father since she calls him “old lecher”(Line 9). In the last stanza she refers to her mother and to her father by saying “you were each other’s bad bargain, not mine.” (Line 19) What she means here is that maybe her mother new what her father was doing to her daughter, (sexual abuse) but that her mother was terribly afraid of her husband that she couldn’t help her daughter. “not mine” (Line 19) she does not hold bad feeling against her. The daughter criticized her father throughout the poem by describing him as “daddy, old pauper,” “old prisoner,” and “old dead man” (line 20). These descriptions of her father show how the daughter emotionally detached herself from her father. In the beginning of the poem, the daughter made it clear that she cannot go on with her life and the mother cannot rest peacefully because they both believed they were owed. The mother and father both died, but the daughter felt as though she was left with the mess they left her and she found this to be completely unfair. In the last stanza, the daughter realizes she was wasting her time standing at her father’s grave since she knew that deep inside there was no forgiveness and there never would be. She knew she was wasting her time because her father was dead and she knew that he was so evil

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that even dead he would not ask her to forgive him. She called him “old prisoner”. (Line 20) This suggests how mean and evil he was. Clifton gives a very good description of the father, a person with no feelings cruel and mean man. The paradox of forgiving and not forgiving is shown in the way she tells her father “I wish you were rich so I could take it all and give the lady what she was due.” (Line 10-11) This is where her anger goes so far. If her father had been rich she would had taken that money for her mother’s burial and to make it very pleasant. In this stanza Clifton gives a very good description of the father, a person with no feelings cruel and mean man. For example “you gave her all you had which was nothing. You have already given her all you had.” (Line14-15) She realizes that she was wasting her time standing at her father’s grave since she knew that deep inside of her there was no forgiveness and could never be one. Also she knew she was wasting her time because her father was dead and she knew that he was so evil that even dead he will not ask her to forgive him. She called him “old prisoner”, (Line 20) this tells me how mean and evil he was. To conclude the title “forgiving my father” is nothing more than the central idea of the poem, which is the haunted memories of mistreatments and abuses of her father towards her. The title symbolizes not love but hate. The title is an opposition of forgiveness since she will not pardon him. The ambiguity, paradox, irony, and opposition are seen here in the title as well throughout the poem. She talks about forgiveness when she doesn’t forgive. She goes to his grave, expressing her feeling and emotions out loud like if her father could hear her. She does this to feel better and to let out all the anger buried inside her.