“forgiving my father” by Lucille Clifton is a poem that produces varied interpretations throughout the minds of different readers. It is evident to any reader, however, that the poem raises many questions about the speaker’s upbringing that initially provides the audience with hope, but takes a drastic left turn. The title of the work successfully creates an eventual irony, leading one to believe that the poem will have a hopeful tone and show signs of reconciliation between a child and her father; but, as readers transition throughout the poem, the diction and tone combine to communicate the speaker’s reality to be much less than hopeful and condemning. Many of the details used in the author’s diction paint a picture for the reader of just how hurt this girl is. Although the development of the poem leads the audience through several emotions starting with thoughts of happiness and leading to those of heartbreak for the child throughout the poem, this transition is the author’s biggest point. There are several details within the poem that add to the intensity of this drastic change including the mother’s strong place in the girl’s life and the father’s role as a figure only in her “dreams like a ghost” (Clifton 525). 

In day to day life, people create relationships and form serious bonds with people no matter the connection. Often these relationships become so strong that people become willing to stick up for and defend those who either cannot or will not protect themselves. Sadly, sometimes children end up having to defend their mothers, even though those roles are typically the other way around. On a more serious note, some children serve as a shield from the brutal hand of the father. This phenomenon is illustrated in the text, seeing as the mother of the speaker has an extremely strong presence in the young girl’s life although she is not literally present in the poem, she is only mentioned. The mother’s presence, or lack thereof in the poem, speaks volumes because it helps enforce the point that the child is now stepping up and holding her father accountable for all his wrongdoings against her mother. This is where the author’s diction comes into play. She uses very strong words and metaphors throughout the poem to not only display the father’s transgressions, but the girl’s own grievances. Although there is no proof that this girl has had to protect her mother from physical beatings, her father’s physical and monetary absence in her life is the most important fault the child seems to find. As if this absence was not enough, it ultimately beat her mother down and sent her to “her early grave,” but the child will no longer allow the abuse (Clifton 525). This child does not serve as a protector of her mother in the general sense, but as a symbolic protector who actually serves as a collector who is ready for “the paying of the bills” by her father (Clifton 525). The author constructs a strong metaphor, connecting bills that are ready to be paid with the consequences her father must pay for his wrong doings. The author injects this symbolism frequently throughout the poem to add emphasis and emotion to the text. It almost appears as if the girl is begging her father to finally pay up while trying to remain emotionless, but that does not work. The words used are harsh, such as “old pauper old prisoner, old dead man” and so clearly filled with emotion (Clifton 526). A pauper is commonly defined as a very poor person. Although the child knows her father is poor, she still expects him to pay her back in whatever way he can for the abuse of her mother. Prisoners are commonly known as people being held by the government because of their crimes but in this instance, the father is a prisoner to his child because of the crimes he has committed against her and her mother by being an awful father. This imprisonment is likely worse than regular prison because at least there are typically hopes of being freed. Because of this child’s hatred for her father and unwillingness to forgive, he will probably be a prisoner in her eyes until he becomes the dead man she refers to him as.  This showcases her anger and hatred towards her father even though she is trying to be strong and tough, for her mother’s sake. Her mother’s hardships and her father’s contribution to those hardships have lead the child to hold a hatred for her father that seems to be beyond forgiveness. This simple fact makes the poem paradoxical to the title and with the help of the diction used, the audience can see the transition from thoughts of forgiveness to everlasting hatred. 

All too often, people have experiences that are not always full of joy, but can be traumatizing and become engraved as a memory never to be forgotten. Some of these memories often hit at the most vulnerable time: sleep. This child’s father is constantly “in [her] dreams like a ghost” but is not present in her day to day life (Clifton 525). Watching her mother suffer throughout the years, whether the abuse was physical or came from the father’s absence, has shaped the child’s view of the father and it not only created hatred for him, but also created the disturbing dreams and mental pictures of her father she describes as a ghost. The lack of capitalization in the title and throughout the poem serve as a symbol for the father’s absence and her lack of respect for him. These small details add to the overall saddening and condemning tone of the poem. A ghost is defined as a supernatural being who takes the shape of someone who has died and they are typically known to haunt the living and wreak havoc. Through his absence in his child’s life, the father has become a ghost to her.

The striking contradictions between the title and the actual text show that the poem is not about how the girl is trying to forgive her father, instead it lists the reasons why she will never be able to; the most important of these being her mother’s hardships. The relationship between the mother and father, the “bad bargain” that the child did not ask for, has left this girl with a mother, worn and torn by hardship who she constantly must look out for, and a father who has been nothing more than absent throughout her life (Clifton 526). These two points tie into the overall theme: a single sign of hope and a list of reasons why it will never come true.  
