In the poem forgiving my father by Lucille Clifton, the speaker talks to her father about money, bills, and debt, which are hardships that the father has caused. The speaker, being the daughter of this father, directs a lot of her frustration towards him which is showing the reader her point of view. She talks about her relationship with her father from her perspective as opposed to his. Throughout the poem the language the speaker uses and use of no capitalization demonstrates that she does not hold her father to a high standard.  By looking at the speaker’s feelings towards her father, we can see that she is angry with him and blames him for her financial situation; this is important because the way she speaks to him gives the reader insight into their relationship. 

To start off, in this poem the choice of words used towards the father shows how the speaker feels about him. When the speaker refers to her father as “you” it indicates that she is talking to her father and not just about him. This is also used to introduce the speaker’s feelings. For example, the speaker says, “there is no more time for you” and “i wish you were rich” when speaking to him about the financial bind that she is in. The daughter talks about her father not paying all the bills because he could not get enough money in time. She wishes her father was rich so she would no longer have to worry about how she and her family would make ends meet. The speaker uses the word “you” more in the poem than the word “i” which helps to put more emphasis on her father and it demonstrates how she continuously blames him for all the debt and bills put on her. 

For example, another model of how the speaker’s choice of words shows the reader more about their father and daughter relationship is when she calls her father different names. The daughter calls her father old and dead, which would maybe explain why he stood in her dreams haunting her in the beginning of the poem. The speaker also compares her father to a ghost “asking for more time” and this could symbolize the responsibilities being held over her head because of his decisions in life (Clifton 4). This would explain why she is angry with him. She also refers to him as a lecher, liar and prisoner. A lecher is also known as a womanizer and this means that her father may have flirted with or cheated on her mother with other women. He could have lied to her and her family in the past about so many things and his actions could have caused him to be imprisoned at some point in his life. All her father’s issues may have coincided with her family’s struggle with money and paying the bills on time. Her father’s possible neglect and failure to provide is what has sparked the buildup of the daughter’s anger towards him.

Another telling element about the daughter’s relationship with her father is that when she is referring to him as a pauper and prisoner, she goes into what their life was like before he died. The daughter talks about her father not helping her mother pay bills and provide for their family. She feels that a lot of the worrying and stress was put on her mother by her father and that she did not deserve to have so much put on her. The speaker then says, “you gave her all you had which was nothing. you have already given her all you had” (Clifton 14). What the speaker is saying here is that her father gave her mother no money or financial assistance because he had already given all he had to another woman. The speaker’s father giving another woman, possibly a mistress, all of the money that he did make instead of putting it towards his responsibilities could also be a big part of why she is so upset. 

Also, the way the speaker talks about money and the words used in relation to her father and family gives the reader another idea as to what their family dynamic was like. Words related to money such as bills, payday, collecting and Friday are very often used throughout the poem. The daughter talks about the bills needing to be paid on Friday but every Friday the father comes up short. The daughter asks herself why is she the one collecting money because she is upset that the father didn’t have money to provide for them and have some to pass down to her and her family. The speaker puts most of the blame for the money troubles on her father but she also states that both her parents had a hand in her current financial situation. The daughter then says, “you lie side by side in debtors’ boxes and no accounting will open them up.”, which means that both of her parents had debt that she has to take care of now that they are dead and gone. In this situation debtors’ boxes could also mean caskets and her parents’ graves could be lying side by side. Now that her parents are dead and they have left her with all these bills to worry about, no matter how hard she tries, even if she pays off all their debts it will not bring them back to life. 

In conclusion, the way the speaker feels about her father shows the reader that she is angry with him for leaving her in a stressful financial situation. Since none of the words are capitalized in the poem, it gives the reader a sense of the speaker’s age, she seems younger, and it could also show that this is more of the daughter’s thought process than a verbal conversation. The daughter’s feelings during this hard time are that her father could have made her life way easier if he had done a better job during his lifetime to provide for them. Since the poem is from the daughter’s point of view the reader is able to sympathize with her and the blame on her father. 
