Lucille Clifton’s poem “forgiving my father” portrays a narrator that holds a grudge against her father for the suffering that herself and her mother had to endure during her childhood. The father and mother are both deceased and the daughter stands at her father’s grave forgiving him of all his debts that caused her family suffering. In Lucille Clifton’s poem, “forgiving my father”, Clifton uses small metaphors about money and death to combine as an extended metaphor, capitalization, word choice and style which most readers don’t see; this is important because all these elements contribute to the displaying of the theme of forgiveness given by the daughter despite her believing that he was responsible for all of her family’s shortcomings.

Clifton uses metaphors and phrases about money with double meanings to contribute to the theme of forgiveness despite the past in “forgiving my father”. The narrator introduces the poem saying that she was coming to pay off the bills or the debts, and that “all week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time” (Clifton 3-4). This metaphor symbolizes that the father has been haunting her dream begging for more time to pay off his debts, which are his wrongdoings. The father is hoping his daughter will forgive him for all that he has done to her and her mother, that he will not be able to rest peacefully until he does. With this metaphor, Clifton shows that the daughter believes she must forgive her father now that he is dead, and that both her father and herself will not be able to rest peacefully until she does. The narrator then explains that “today is payday, payday old man,” that today will be the day that day to pay off the debt, pay off her father’s debt (Clifton 5). This metaphor symbolizes that today will be the day that she forgives her father of his debts, which is him being responsible for the struggles of her and her mother. By doing this, Clifton shows that the daughter plans to forgive the father after all that he has done, comparing payday, the day people get paid for their work, to the day the father’s actions will be forgiven, or paid off. The next metaphor is when the narrator says “you are the pocket that was going to open and come up empty any Friday” saying her father left many uncompleted promises to her (Clifton 16-17). Clifton is saying that like someone would say they would one up their pocket and come up empty, the father left his family with many empty promises that were never fulfilled. The last metaphor in the poem says that the father and the mother now “lie side by side in debtors’ boxes” (Clifton 22). The debtors’ boxes symbolize that the mother and father are both buried in cheap coffins, since they both owed her a debt (mostly her father) which was all of her struggles in her childhood. 

Clifton uses capitalization to portray his theme of the daughter forgiving her father for all the ways he made her struggle in her childhood. All of the words in this poem are not capitalized which makes the poem seem like it is written by a child. The childlike tone in this poem is very important because the daughter is forgiving her father for what he has done wrong her in childhood. The words “daddy” and “old dead man” lead the reader to believe that she is talking about her childhood in the past to her old, father (Clifton 20). This helps the reader understand that the daughter is forgiving her father despite their past, and all the shortcomings she had throughout her childhood because of him. 

Clifton uses word choice to guide the reader to having an opinion on the father, on the kind of person he was. Through the use of “old pauper” the reader can assume that the father is very poor and that he did not provide for his family like a father should (Clifton 20). When the narrator describes her father as an “old lecher”, the reader can assume that the father was very lustful. He could have cheated on her mother and then left the family with nothing, or he even could have sexually abused the daughter in her childhood. Another important choice of words was the use of “old Liar” which led the reader to believe that the father lied to his family quite often (Clifton10). After looking at all of these words describing the father it is easy to infer that the father was not a very good father at all, which contribute to the theme that the daughter forgave her father despite everything he has done. 

Lastly, Clifton uses style to help the reader see that the daughter is forgiving the father after he is dead. The way that the poem was written it seems that the daughter is talking to her father after he is already dead. It is written like a statement of letter to her father despite him being dead. This contributes to the theme because it lets the reader know the the daughter can find forgiveness in her heart even after everything her father has done or not done for her now that he is dead. 

Lucille Clifton uses many elements to help portray her theme of forgiveness despite the past in her poem, “forgiving my father”. She uses the metaphors about money to symbolize the forgiveness of the father’s debts to the daughter. Capitalization provides a childlike tone to the poem. Clifton uses word choice to portray the father as a poor, lustful liar. And she lets the style of the poem show the reader that the daughter is now forgiving her father after he is dead. 
