The unfortunate story of a girl in a poem in need of her father’s assistance tells a sad but very common story a lot of kids have to go through. The poem is named, “Forgiving my Father,” and it was written by Lucille Clifton. This poem gives a “time’s up” image for the girl’s father because of how he has to come up with money that he isn’t able to accumulate. The girl’s mother has passed away long before due and now the daughters only option is to reach out for her dad for assistance but he Is not capable to help. Payment seems to play a major role in this poem and could be the theme of this poem. Payment relate to the reason the girl is getting more and more distant from her father. In this essay I will be discussing the instances where the financial terms and harsh attitude of the girl toward her father relay a larger image than their original meaning, relating to the theme but contradicting the poems own name when she explains it’s time to pay the bills its payday, when she calls him an old pauper and a bad bargain, and when she explains her father lying side by side in debtor’s boxes. These examples will demonstrate the picture that Clifton was trying to allude to through her text.

The poem written by Clifton illustrates an image that is all too common in everyday households. Clifton wrote a passage “you were each other’s bad bargain, not mine. Daddy old pauper old prisoner,” in which illustrates an example where the load is more on the daughter than it should be. The use of financial terms such as “bargain” and “pauper” relay an image that is separate from what those words actually mean. The use of bargain was to portray the image that the daughter had no say in how she got to this world and so the issues that accompanied that shouldn’t be her bargain as well, that should be left up to her parents. Also, due to this bad bargain, Clifton engages us with the question, “what am I doing here collecting?” Collecting is another financial term used here that gives us the image of someone looking to get something. In this case, collecting is used here to show how the daughter is standing there practically having to beg to collect what is owed to her. This gives a role reversal to your average family because typically, you wouldn’t see parents owing the child money very often. It is usually the child who owes the parents so its stunning the fact this girl is without her mother having to practically beg her father to provide. In my opinion the theme of this poem would be to not rely on others no matter how close you are to them. The examples I have chosen follow this theme because the girl is showing her frustration toward her father because time and time again she relies on him and asks him to pay up but he just can’t. In no way here she is forgiving her father as the tittle states. It seems as if she is releasing her emotions and speaking her mind. Her mind is leaning not more with forgiving it seems like, but more with forgetting.

The second occurrence of where you see a meaning from a financial term differ from its actual meaning and relay a much harsher image, as well as following the theme but differing from the title, occurs when the girl says “its payday, payday old man.” When you think of payday you think of the day some type of payment is due. In this poem, pay day alludes to a “time’s up” statement. She also exclaims in the lines before this that it is time for the paying of the bills. This is more financial terminology used to describe how there’s no more waiting around or begging for a payment, it’s payday now and whatever you owe is due. She also thinks of herself as just bills to her father because of her statement that it’s time to pay the bills, which really the bills are her and what she and her mom were owed. This also follows along with the theme of how you cannot rely on others because they won’t always meet your expectations. Her harsh attitude toward her father shows no sign of forgiveness, but instead shows more fury. She exclaims that she has to hold her mother’s hand out from the grave asking for what is owed and that hand is still coming up empty handed. The daughters hand continues to hold that mothers hand out from the grave in a welcoming fashion because her father is dead to her now and dead to the world pretty much so he needs to be where he belongs. Her father is more and more of a lost cause to her now as the days go on and his time has run out and the time for forgiving is over. The daughter gives off emotions that show she’d just rather forget. Sort of like she’d rather just have him gone and in a grave. 

My final piece of evidence relates back to my second one. “You lie side by side in debtors’ boxes and no accounting will open them up.” The previous quote was made by the daughter in regards to where her father stands financially.  The father seems to be in so much debt and owes so much that he can’t pay just his daughter back, but also can’t pay back other people he’s associated with. Just like the mother who passed away at a young age and now lies in a grave, her dad is now dead as well and locked away in debtors’ boxes (a grave) and there’s no bringing him back from that just like there’s no bringing her mother back as well. Accounting is another financial term used here which is the process of keeping financial accounts. It is used in this poem in a way to represent a lock. No matter how much you turn that lock and try different combinations, that lock won’t open and her father is always going to be in that grave. No accounting will open that grave is the same as saying he’s locked in there. This relates back to the theme of where you have to rely on yourself the most because people will get let down and in this case the girl’s father let her down immensely. This is the final stage of the poem where all hope is lost and the concept of forgiving her father is gone. It’s time for her to move on from the thought of him and his unreliable habits. Time to forget. 

You can only take so much until it’s time to say enough. That’s what the daughter in the poem “Forgiving my Father” did. She finally said times up and that he needed to give what was owed but he of course let her down. The financial terms and her attitude played a major role in relaying a different image than it originally gave off and followed the theme more while contradicting the tittles message. The author chose to change the meanings of these financial words because they help portray the image of not just the father owing money, but also owing the daughter in a moral way and the price he’s now having to pay because he comes up empty handed. The daughter did not expect anything less though. The daughter knew the whole time that her father would come up empty handed and that is why she held her mother’s hand out from the grave with welcoming arms once it was finally payday. She explains how he is the pocket that always comes up empty, so it’s no surprise to her that he’s actually come up empty. The effect these financial words have on the poem is enormous. They completely alter how you could interpret the text and once you’ve understood the different interpretation to the text the poem will have more of an impact on you and a better image can get painted in your head. I can relate to a great extent what the daughter in this poem is going through. I grew up half my life just with my mother after her and my father got a divorce and the child support payments stopped coming after a year. He managed to get around the system illegally and has not made a payment in years and nor can he due to his economic status. It stinks not getting the support you need or what is owed to your family to make things easier but those people put themselves in a whole and them not being able to come up with what they owe is because of their own mistakes and they must live with the consequences. The girl in this poem gradually felt worse and worse about her father as the poem went on which is ironic because the title, “Forgiving my Father,” would make you think as the poem went on she’d start to be more forgiving towards him. Since the poem takes a backward direction and the daughter starts to feel worse and worse about her father, the name of the poem should be switched to “Forgiving my Father.” This new name would allow the reader to understand that the actions this father has taken isn’t going to earn him a second chance from his daughter. These actions have caused his relationship with his daughter to plummet and is her eyes he’s dead now. Maybe not dead in the world, but dead to his daughter.        

 