The Poem To Forgive is Divine by Lucille Clifton - Essay Example

"Forgiving my Father[To Forgive is Divine"] by Lucille Clifton The poet Lucille Clifton described her emotions in the poem, "forgiving my father [To Forgive is Divine]". The poet expressed her grief and also her forgiveness through her poem. The poem is highly emotional as it describes the expectations of a little child, from her parents especially from her father. The poem depicts the sentiments of young children and their desires, probably, if parents are caring and compassionate, things would have been different for a child. Now, the poet is grown up but she recalls her little aspirations to possess all the finest things available in the world, all the goodies and lot of affection from the parents, she was kept deprived from such instants. The poem displays the feelings of the poet towards her parents especially father and how the poverty of the father has influenced her and her emotions are being worn-out every weekend because of lack of resources and money. The poet has highlighted the importance of money in life to lead an absolute life and to accomplish all the dreams. The poet has very well explained how lack of money or poverty smashed away her dreams and her father does not have any time for her moreover, his wages were meager, not sufficient to meet even the daily requirements of the family. The poet seemed to be annoyed with her father for letting her mother down and also for abusing her mother but in the end the poet seemed to be forgiving because she understood the situation her father was witnessing every day. The poet understood that the father wants to give her happiness and loves her from his heart, but he is unable to fulfill her dreams due to the shortage of money. He is helpless and therefore he is trying to ignore her little demands and finds himself incapable and therefore he is not paying any heed to the talks and hallucinations of her little daughter. In the beginning of the poem the poet seemed to display confronting temperament. She wanted to accumulate some money to clear her unpaid bills but she failed to do so and she seemed to be fearful about asking her father for money, her fear overstated to the extent that she wrote "stood in dreams like a ghost" . She felt that her father is like a ghost because of the attitude that her father displayed which was troubling her even when he was not around. After the demise of father emotions persists but for the poet her father is symbolically dead because his emotions are not finding any place in her life. The poet seemed to be irritated as her father never gave her enough time and even on the payday she found him empty hand. The poem describes the disappointment of the poet where lack of money, debt, and poverty has been illustrated in a manner so as to display the actual misery a poor family and children belonging to the poor parents experience in their daily lives. Besides an emotional detachment between father and daughter, the poem explained the repercussions of poor financial position of the family. In one sense it is observed that poverty may lead to emotional detachment and father of the poet might found himself unaided and powerless to face his daughter and to answer all her queries in an honest manner. The poet seemed helpless and lonely, as her mother has also left her alone. Her mother was dead and she was totally dependent on her father to share her feelings, thoughts and to accomplish all her dreams. One of the reasons for her resentment is that besides the fact that she is left lonely in the world, her father is not paying any notice to her sensitivities. The poet displayed her father to be irresponsible towards family and could not do anything to improve the financial condition of the family, perhaps the poet feels that all these reasons paved the way for her mother's demise. The poet is so upset with her poverty that she is desperate to be affluent, to repair all her emotional setbacks. The poet feels that because of her father's poverty she suffered all through her childhood and describes that poverty runs in the family. Those who are poor have to struggle all their lives to become affluent and to fulfill all their desires; she understands the position of her father in the end and finally forgave her father for his unemotional behaviour. She is an understanding daughter and tries to wipe off her tears with a hope that one day definitely there will be a sunrise where things would turn her way and she will feel the warmth that nature has bestowed upon every child. The poem is highly emotional in the sense that it displays the picture of all those families who are below the poverty line and they really have to struggle hard to meet even their day-to-day requirements. It is a poem which depicts all those underprivileged population, who work hard to earn, and when it is a payday all their earnings go off to clear the debts, bills and to fulfill their basic needs. The poet has very well portrayed the situation of a poor child, how-so-ever the child may be talented or good but poverty takes away everything and it takes life or rather generations to overcome the situation of the poverty. Still poverty has never been the hurdle in exhibiting honest and trustworthy nature of the child and her father. She is true to her father and therefore in the end she forgives her father for all his deeds, which were somehow beyond his control. She might have called her father "old man" in the beginning but in the end she developed sympathy and behaved with empathy. She understood that her father cared for her a lot but at the same time he was honest and never adopted unfair means to spin money. Perhaps the respect that the poet showed for her parents is because of this consciousness and apprehension. The whole message that is being provided by the poet is that one should always follow the path of truth how-so-ever tough it could be, though it may not give all the materialistic happiness but it keeps the conscious clear and one is never guilty in front of the world. Though she belongs to the poor family, her true nature is carved by the upbringing that her parents provided her. She realized that material things could be attained even in the later stages of life but the character building takes place in childhood and if the lesson of honesty is being taught right in the formative years even though one is poor, but it is enough to attain respect in long run, one of the grounds, she forgave her father. Work Cited "Forgiving my father". Web. 19 Sept 2012. . "Forgiving my father". Web. 19 Sept 2012. . Schilb, John, and John Clifford. Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2002. Print. Read More