Literary Analysis-Forgiving My Father by Lucille Clifton-New Criticism

Summary

In her poem,  Forgiving my Father,

Lucille Clifton reflects on her

relationship with her now-deceased

parents and the family's conflicts

with poverty that she still

contemplates and

struggles with.

Literary Analysis

The title suggests that the speaker is in the process of forgiving her

father as if the process is a

 continuous action.

Structure and Diction

Paired with the structure of the first stanza, where every other line juxtaposes a tone of positive and negative, lines 1, 3, 5, and 7 read alone and in the positive tone show that the speaker is hopeful at times about her father's presence in her life. Alternating the lines in the first stanza and selecting positive diction like Friday, dreams, payday, and good daughter mimics the positive side of the father-daughter relationship.

However, the word choices in the even lines in the first stanza, "…paying of the bills/like a ghost…/…early grave," establish a negative tone, thereby setting up the conflict of this father-daughter relationship as an ongoing struggle (lines 1-7).

Conflict

In stanzas 2-3, the speaker introduces more conflict between the father and another woman, assumedly the mother and wife of this family. This conflict, though, appears to be over and not an ongoing experience reflected in the speaker. "You gave…/…already given" in lines 14 and 15 points to a past tense conflict with the third party, which alerts to the speaker's ongoing conflict introduced in the first stanza and also suggested in the title.

The present participle action tucked into the third stanza in lines 21 and 23, "Collecting" and "Accounting," are both ongoing actions of the speaker, suggesting again the theme that forgiveness is an ongoing activity and not ultimately final.

Theme and Symbolism

Collecting in line 21 is symbolic to the speaker because she questions her struggle and her responsibility in her relationship with her father. As the title suggests, she is in the process of "forgiving" him, and the first stanza suggests a back-and-forth struggle with her father.

The parallel structure of forgiving, collecting, and accounting align with this internal train of thought from the speaker, almost as if to say, is "forgiving my father" what I want to do?

This thought suggests that she thinks that "no accounting" from her father taking responsibility for the conflict will make a difference in what has already happened or passed. A hint back to stanza 2, where a past relationship with a third party also ended in conflict. The structure of using "ing" this way suggests a theme of ongoing contemplation of forgiveness.

Born in 1936 in DePew, New York, Lucille Clifton grew up in Buffalo. She studied at Howard University before transferring to SUNY Fredonia, near her hometown. She was discovered as a poet by Langston Hughes, who published Clifton's poetry in his highly influential anthology, The Poetry of the Negro (1970). Clifton’s work focuses on the African-American experience and family life, emphasizing endurance and strength through adversity.