Families with children have struggled for years to stay above the poverty line and raise good healthy kids, when they don’t have a father to provide for them. Lucille Clifton’s poem, “forgiving my Father,” uses details, figurative language, and diction to show the effects of life without a loving and supportive father.

Clifton uses negative diction to explore how children feel about their fathers who aren’t in their life and have left them with nothing. Clifton uses words like “old lecher,” “old liar,” “old pauper,” “old prisoner,” and “old dead man” to describe the speaker’s feelings toward her father. She uses these negative words to give more insight about how terrible a man the speaker’s father is. She calls him a “lecher,” which basically means he is a pervert and she calls him a “pauper,” which is someone who is very poor. This shows how the speaker resents her father for not being there to raise her and provide for the family. The speaker also describes as a “prisoner,” “liar,” and “dead man” to show that her father was not a very good person and may have even been a criminal. Even if he would have been there for his family he would not have been a good role model and wouldn’t have been able to take care of them anyway. Most elderly people don’t like to be called old so, Clifton uses the word “old” in front these phrases to show that the speaker uses old as an insult to describe her. The speaker shows some signs that she still cares about her father and how she has a longingness for him to be in her life but she is just so frustrated with him so the way she expresses this is by calling him names. Clifton show the poor relationship between the speaker and her father and how it has caused much distress in the speaker’s life.

Throughout Clifton’s poem, she uses details to convey the families struggles with poverty because of the nonexistent father. One way Clifton shows this struggle is when she says, “all week you have stood in my dreams / like a ghost, asking for more time / but today is payday, payday old man” (3-5). Due to an invisible father, the speaker feels that her father owes them for their pain and suffering. the speaker still feels that her father is with her, which shows she stills has a longing to see him even though he has not been in her life. By her father not being in her life has caused her to feel like she is helpless so all she can do is speak out about her issues even though nobody will help her. Another example is when she says, “I wish I could take it all / and give the lady what she was due” (10-11). This shows how the speaker is upset with her father for causing tension between the family by not being there or helping to pay the bills. The speaker feels her mother is obligated to the money because her mother has worked harder than him by taking care of the children and paying the bills. Clifton also says, “you gave her all you had / which was nothing” (14-15). The speaker just lashes out at her father throughout the poem and that is because she still loves him and wants him to be there for the family so that they can get out of their poverty stricken lifestyle. Clifton shows how hard it is to live without a father and why it cause harm to the family.

Clifton uses similes to show her father has not been in her life and has caused her much suffering. The speaker compares her father to ghost when she says. “all week you stood in my dreams / like a ghost” (4-5). This may suggest that the speakers father is dead and she is comparing her alive father to her dead father and how neither one of them could come through to pay the bills and provide for the family. this may also suggest that the father is not in the speaker’s life so the speaker is explaining how hard it was for her growing up without a loving and supportive father to teach her new things and help her through the tough times that she may have had. Later in the poem Clifton says, “my mother’s hand opens in her early grave / and I hold it out like a good daughter” (6-7). the speaker may think that she is a good daughter by holding her hand out to get money for her mother, but she never had a father to teach about being a good person or to support her so that she would not think that she is a good daughter for holding her hand out for money is not something people should do. A good daughter at this time would most likely help with the chores and cooking dinner, but instead she has to beg for money because her father is not in her life which is causing the family much poverty and hardships.  The use of figurative language shows how not having a father figure around can cause families to be financially and emotionally unstable which in return can cause illness, like in the mothers case, and many other hardships that may follow with poverty and unhappiness.

Through Clifton’s use of details, diction, and figurative language she shows not having a father in one’s life can cause poverty and un happiness. Clifton’s use of diction has shown how children without fathers can cause distress within that child, and thus causing distress within the family. The uses of details reveal how families without father figures can cause poverty within the family, and many hardships that come with being poor. Her use of figurative language creates a picture of what can happen to children of families who are living without a father and how it harms the children the most to grow up without a father. A father is just as important to a family as a mother and without him a family may fall apart just like in this poem and cause the children much suffering.
