The presence of complex relationships in a person’s life will often have great impacts on his or her actions. The nature of these impacts can either have a negative or positive result in the end. In Lucille Clifton’s poem entitled “forgiving my father,” readers discover the speaker’s parents have both passed away; however, the narrator is haunted by memories of dissension between her and her father. These memories force the narrator to keep her father accountable for his wrongdoings without granting him forgiveness for his shortcomings. In the last stanza of the poem, the narrator realizes dwelling on her late father’s wrongdoings will not allow her to rid of her bitterness; furthermore, she finally concedes forgiveness. At first glance, superficial …show more content…
The poem is written completely in lowercase letters, which makes the harsh diction appear less severe; furthermore, the speaker’s regret is illuminated although she is attempting to keep it concealed. The employment of the lowercase letters effectively demonstrates the ambiguity of the work itself which raises questions about how the narrator truly feels, which is regret. This theme is also highlighted when the narrator states, “You have stood in my dreams/like a ghost” (3-4). This quote further exemplifies the sensation of regret because a ghost is unable to pay his earthly debts, and this haunting brings guilt and regret to the forefront of the speaker’s mind. The ghost not only symbolizes regret, but the worriment that the speaker endures due to the unpaid debts and lack of care during her childhood. While regret has grown from the hatred the narrator has for her father, she begins to understand that dwelling on her father’s wrongdoings will not change the …show more content…
Although she may not feel that her father deserves to be forgiven, she evidently attempts to mature from hatred to forgiveness. This becomes clear when she asks, “What am I doing here collecting?” (21). Realizing that her late father is unable to repay his dues, the speaker asks this question to herself. This question signifies her newfound realization that dwelling over the past will forbid her from encountering peace with what her father did to the family. She begins to realize that after all these years of “collecting” and remaining empty-handed, the best step in the process of letting go is to simply forgive and forget her deceased father’s shortcomings (21). Moreover, the speaker finally answers her question when she states in the final stanza, “And no accounting will open them up” (22). This is when readers discover that the speaker is acknowledging her forgiveness because she can no longer keep her father accountable for his inability to pay his dues. Although this forgiveness may be a stretch to frivolous readers, the title suggests that this forgiveness must take place in the
The speaker’s personal emotions emphasizes the poem’s theme since although his father is no longer with him in this world, the memory of his father will always live in his heart. Throughout the poem, Lee uses the sky, underground, and the heart to symbolize imagination, reality, and memory—emphasizing the poem’s theme of the remembrance of a loved one. Lee also uses repetition to convey the meaning of Little Father. The speaker repeatedly mentions “I buried my father…Since then…” This repetition displays the similarity in concepts, however the contrast in ideas. The first stanza focuses on the spiritual location of the speaker’s father, the second stanza focuses on the physical location of the father, and the third stanza focuses on the mental location of the speaker’s father. This allows the reader to understand and identify the shift in ideas between each stanza, and to connect these different ideas together—leading to the message of despite where the loved one is (spiritually or physically), they’ll always be in your heart. The usage of word choice also enables the reader to read in first person—the voice of the speaker. Reading in the voice of the speaker allows the reader to see in the perspective of the speaker and to connect with the speaker—understand
His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him. The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ... ...
The piece itself is about a man (the narrator) who commits some form of domestic violence against his partner/wife, and is begging for forgiveness - asking God to understand that he didn’t truly mean to hurt her and that he is sorry, ‘I’m just a soul whose intentions are
The poem starts out with the daughter 's visit to her father and demand for money; an old memory is haunting the daughter. feeding off her anger. The daughter calls the father "a ghost [who] stood in [her] dreams," indicating that he is dead and she is now reliving an unpleasant childhood memory as she stands in front of his
Through an intimate maternal bond, Michaels mother experiences the consequences of Michaels decisions, weakening her to a debilitating state of grief. “Once he belonged to me”; “He was ours,” the repetition of these inclusive statements indicates her fulfilment from protecting her son and inability to find value in life without him. Through the cyclical narrative structure, it is evident that the loss and grief felt by the mother is continual and indeterminable. Dawson reveals death can bring out weakness and anger in self and with others. The use of words with negative connotations towards the end of the story, “Lonely,” “cold,” “dead,” enforce the mother’s grief and regressing nature. Thus, people who find contentment through others, cannot find fulfilment without the presence of that individual.
Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” and A.S. Byatt’s “The Thing in the Forest” are both focused on the intersections of childhood trauma, memory, and guilt, as well as how someone’s childhood can affect them through life. Each has its own idea of what effect the guilt might have on a person and how it can affect different people in different ways. “Recitatif” and “The Thing in the Forest” both revolve around the guilt and confusion that adults face when reflecting upon their childhood and wondering if their recollections are entirely accurate; however, one focuses on the difference it makes in otherwise parallel lives and the other focuses on the parallel it makes in otherwise different lives.
In the poem ¨My Father¨ by Scott Hightower, the author describes a rather unstable relationship with his now deceased father. Scott describes his father as a mix of both amazing and atrocious traits. The father is described as someone who constantly contradicts himself through his actions. He is never in between but either loving and heroic or cold and passive. The relationship between Scott and his father is shown to be always changing depending on the father’s mood towards him. He sees his father as the reason he now does certain things he finds bad. But at the end of it all, he owes a great deal to his father. Scott expresses that despite his flaws, his father helped shape the man he is today. Hightower uses certain diction, style, and imagery to
His ungratefulness as a child has now emerged on him, leaving the speaker ashamed of taking his father’s hard work for granted. In this poem he writes, “…fearing the chronic angers of that house//Speaking indifferently to him/who had driven out the cold…” (Hayden, 17). When he quotes “fearing chronic angers”, the speaker refers to his view of life as a child, and how he interpreted his father’s agony and self-sacrifice as anger towards him. With an apathetic and cold attitude that accompanied his youth, he did not recognize the love that his father had for him. Hayden also writes, “What did I know, What did I know…” (Hayden 17). Repeating this rhetorical question twice it is obvious that the speaker, now as an adult, feels deep remorse over the way he had treated his father. With a matured mind, Hayden came to the realization that love comes in all shapes and forms, and his father’s love was shown through his selfless
This change in tone echoes the emotions and mental state of the narrator. At the beginning of the poem, the narrator starts somewhat nervous. However, at the end, he is left insane and delusional. When he hears a knocking at the door, he logically pieces that it is most likely a visitor at the door.
From the combination of enjambed and end-stopped lines, the reader almost physically feels the emphasis on certain lines, but also feels confusion where a line does not end. Although the poem lacks a rhyme scheme, lines like “…not long after the disaster / as our train was passing Astor” and “…my eyes and ears…I couldn't think or hear,” display internal rhyme. The tone of the narrator changes multiple times throughout the poem. It begins with a seemingly sad train ride, but quickly escalates when “a girl came flying down the aisle.” During the grand entrance, imagery helps show the importance of the girl and how her visit took place in a short period of time. After the girl’s entrance, the narrator describes the girl as a “spector,” or ghost-like figure in a calm, but confused tone. The turning point of the poem occurs when the girl “stopped for me [the narrator]” and then “we [the girl and the narrator] dove under the river.” The narrator speaks in a fast, hectic tone because the girl “squeez[ed] till the birds began to stir” and causes her to not “think or hear / or breathe or see.” Then, the tone dramatically changes, and becomes calm when the narrator says, “so silently I thanked her,” showing the moment of
The speaker may have believed that her mother deserved way more than what she got from her father. What lead to the idea of bills being time was the energy the speaker was giving off. She made the readers look at her father as a bad man along with her. The speaker states, “ i wish you were rich so i could take it all and give the lady what she was due,” it appears the daughter wishes he had a lifetime supplies of time that she could take back and give it to her mother. She makes it seem as if it would only be for her mother but from how she sounds in the poem it could be for her a lot more than her mother. A father figure is supposed to love their child, confort his child when some jerk picks on them, or go out and build their daughter a treehouse to play in. Instead it seems as if her father betrayed her and her mother by cheating on them with other woman. This makes one feel rage because it makes them feel unwanted, worthless, empty or even unloved. A father's child should not feel that way. The speaker even makes a big statement not in the poem but an observation of the poem. If one pays attention one finds that there are no capital letters. It could possibly be that it was her way of showing that her forgiveness would not be given easily or truthfully. She would always have that loss of time deep down inside. The time her father
Through diction, the tone of the poem is developed as one that is downtrodden and regretful, while at the same time informative for those who hear her story. Phrases such as, “you are going to do bad things to children…,” “you are going to suffer… ,” and “her pitiful beautiful untouched body…” depict the tone of the speaker as desperate for wanting to stop her parents. Olds wrote many poems that contained a speaker who is contemplating the past of both her life and her parent’s life. In the poem “The Victims,” the speaker is again trying to find acceptance in the divorce and avoidance of her father, “When Mother divorced you, we were glad/ … She kicked you out, suddenly, and her/ kids loved it… ” (Olds 990). Through the remorseful and gloomy tone, we see that the speaker in both poems struggles with a relationship between her parents, and is also struggling to understand the pain of her
The consequences of the father's actions are put onto his children while he is able to leave without any suffering. While the father was alive he spent his money on prostitutes and alcohol. Hence, once he died the children were left with the financial hole he had dug himself in. Clifton comments that when the speaker “[came] / to the paying of the bills” (1-2) there was no money to pay his debts. The speaker is unable to forget what her father has done because the weight is still on her shoulders. Moreover, while the speaker’s father was spending his time with prostitutes, his children grew a deeper and deeper loathe against him. Forgetting the misery that the children’s father selfishness caused may be impossible, but forgiveness is
...ttachment or emotion. Again, Heaney repeats the use of a discourse marker, to highlight how vividly he remembers the terrible time “Next morning, I went up into the room”. In contrast to the rest of the poem, Heaney finally writes more personally, beginning with the personal pronoun “I”. He describes his memory with an atmosphere that is soft and peaceful “Snowdrops and Candles soothed the bedside” as opposed to the harsh and angry adjectives previously used such as “stanched” and “crying”. With this, Heaney is becoming more and more intimate with his time alone with his brother’s body, and can finally get peace of mind about the death, but still finding the inevitable sadness one feels with the loss of a loved one “A four foot box, a foot for every year”, indirectly telling the reader how young his brother was, and describing that how unfortunate the death was.
Katherine Philips is desperately trying to renew her faith in life, but she is struggling to do so because of the death of her son. She is attempting to justify the loss of her child as a form of consolation, while keeping somewhat emotionally detached to the later death of her stepson in “In Memory of F.P.” The differing phrases, words, and language contrast the two elegies and emphasize the loss and pain in “Epitaph” while diminishing the pain in “Memory of FP.”