Forgiveness is a hard thing to do in some situations. Everyone has been in a situation in life where it’s hard to forgive someone who has done something to you. You can see how hard it is for the narrator to forgive their deceased father in “Forgiving My Father” by the adjectives used to describe him like: liar, old, poor, prisoner, lecher. These negative adjectives show the tension in the relationship and how there is still some bitter feelings and unforgiven actions even though one of the persons in the relationship is dead.

Throughout the poem, the author uses various adjectives, all with negative connotation to describe her father. The first time the narrator describes her father she describes as an “old man”(Clifton line 5). Yes, this could be because he’s old, but it’s said with sarcasm and hostility. The age of her father is unknown in the poem, he could be any age really. This could be used because he was in fact old, however the context clues you get from reading this line does not suggest that he is old. Instead it is used to describe him in a negative way and to start showing the tension in their relationship. The connotation that comes along with the world old isn’t a positive one or one used to describe the recent passing of a parent that was important to you. This shows that the narrator and her father didn’t have a close relationship. 

In the second paragraph the author uses the words lecher and liar to describe her father. A lecher is a womanizer, so her using this word can show some underlying tension that she had with her father. This also describes the personality he had and how he treated women in general, including her and her mother. Her father being a lecher had to cause issues with the narrator’s mother, which in reaction could have caused the narrator to hold the mothers and father’s problems against her father and take the side of the mother. The second word she uses to describe him is liar. This shows more of the tension that the author had between her and her dad. The father had to lie about many things for her to consider him a liar. The word lair works with the word lecher because most people who cheat on their spouses lie about it. These two words used together suggest an affair that the father had. Throughout this paragraph, she continues to use old with the words lecher and liar which continues the negative connotation used to describe her father. 

 The last times she describes her father she describes him as an “old pauper, old prisoner, and an old dead man” (Clifton, Line 20). A pauper is a poor person, so to describe her father as this it makes you think was he doing something to make himself poor that causes her to describe him like this still with such hostility towards him? She then calls him a prisoner, I don’t think she means he literally was a prisoner and went to jail, but maybe a prisoner in his own life and his own mistakes. This ties back with every word she used to describe him. He was a prisoner in his life because he ruined his marriage by having an affair and lying. He was poor because he didn’t know how to manage his money and spent it on unnecessary things. He was a prisoner in his own life because he ruined his relationship with his daughter and didn’t have one with her. His mistakes that he made in his life made him a prisoner. She mentions him being poor along with being a prisoner, was he a gambler and a prisoner to this addiction? Or maybe even an alcoholic? These could be other reasons as to why she has this tension between her dad. That he was doing something to put the whole family in a financial burden that caused stressed for everyone. The last thing she says to describe him is “old dead man” (Clifton line 20), this is where you know for sure that she’s talking about her father who has passed away. 

Almost all the words used to describe her father are used negatively to paint this image of a lousy Dad. If the author would have replaced these words with words with a positive connotation this whole poem would have a totally different meaning. If she described him as loving, or a hard worker, or trust worthy then the audience would get an image of this great dad who works hard for his family, and had a great relationship with his daughter. If the words had a positive connotation the poem would read more like a eulogy she would be reading at his funeral and she would sound like she already has forgiven her father. With the adjectives used and the negative connotation, it reads as she doesn’t even want to forgive her father. Even if the author stopped using the word old and said dear instead to describe her father it would read like he was someone close to her and was dear to her. The changing of the adjectives would change the mood of the poem, the tone, and suggest that they had a better relationship then the poem suggests right now.  

“Forgiving my Father” is about trying to forgive someone who has caused a lot of hurt in the authors life who is now passed away. This poem is easily relatable because we’ve all had someone do something to us that is hard to forgive. The adjectives that the author uses show just how hard it is for her to forgive her deceased father. The negative connotation shows how much she’s had built up against him and even how now that he’s passed away she still has things to forgive him for and how that’s still difficult for her to do. The author wants to forgive her father, but I think sometimes it’s easier to forget then forgive, but in this case she can’t do that considering he is passed away. The purpose of this poem is to show that forgiveness isn’t always easy and that it’s harder to forgive those closer to us like family. 
