Forgiving My Father

The poem “Forgiving My Father” by Lucille Clifton tells of daughter who is resentful of her father who is dead.  In the first stanza the poet says “It is Friday. We have come to the paying of the bills.  All week you have stood in my dreams like a ghost, asking for more time but today is pay day, pay day old man”, she is resentful that her father is not there to help pay the bills.  Throughout the poem she speaks very unkindly about her father.  She calls him things such as old liar, old pauper, old prisoner, and old dead man.  She expresses that he did not treat her mother right.  She states in line 14-18 “You gave her all you had which was nothing.  You have already given her all you had.  You are the pocket that was going to open and come up empty any Friday.”  In these lines she is saying that her father was not giving her mother money to pay the bills.  Throughout the poem you are expecting the daughter to forgive the father but she never does.  She blames him for debts she has to pay and is not sympathetic even in his death. She blames him for the life she is living now and the terrible life her mother lead. This poem expresses a daughter’s feelings for a father she hated and how her unhappiness is a result of an unfeeling and penniless father that didn’t try to improve his life, his wife’s or hers.

Wild Nights-Wild Nights

The poem “Wild Nights-Wild Nights” by Emily Dickinson is about a women explaining a night where she just lets loose, leaving her problems and everything else behind her and just living in the moment.  She expresses a lot of feeling into this poem and makes the reader feel as if she has no cares or worries.  She mentions how being with someone during a wild night would be luxury.  In lines 7 and 8 when she says “Done with the Compass-Done with the Chart!” she rejects the conventional lifestyle and is done with routines and ordinary life.  Compasses and charts could be paralleled to chores and routines.  Her last stanza “Rowing in Eden- Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor-Tonight- In Thee” has us imagine that she gives herself to someone she loves.  The subject of this poem by Emily Dickinson is surprising because she was a reclusive spinster.  It really makes you wonder if it is a poem about a real sexual encounter.  The poet uses a lot of imagery of the ocean and the port.  Is she picturing a secluded spot when she describes this port? Is it a place where she can secretly meet a lover?  If she is not describing a sexual encounter then what could it be?  Perhaps her just enjoying a night without any worries with someone she loves. 

True Love

What is the meaning of True Love in the story?  I feel that Wislawa Szymborska is questioning love throughout this whole poem.  She keeps asking questions such as “True love. Is it normal, is it serious, is it practical?”  This makes me feel like she has an idea of what she thinks love is but truly she is looking for answers on what love is.  She makes it seem like she hasn’t felt love before so she is angry and upset when she views it in other people.  No one can know what love is by seeing it, love is a feeling that hits you and when it does you know it.  In my opinion everyone has their own perspective on love.  Some people’s views of love may match others and some may not, though no matter what, they have felt the feeling of it in some way.  In the poem, Wislawa mentions “Look at the happy couple. Couldn’t they at least try to hide it, fake a little depression for their friends’ sake!,” in my opinion i feel she is just being selfish herself and not wanting two people to be happy because it makes her sad.  To ask people to hide love is like asking people to hide their emotions and most people can’t.  The question is, “Is the author being ironic?” does true love not matter to her or is it important?  In her last line “Let the people who never find keep saying that there’s no such thing.  Their faith will make it easier for them to live or die.” I believe she thinks that people that don’t believe in true love will never find it.  So maybe she does believe in true love. 

"To My Dear and Loving Husband"

            The Poem, by Anne Bradstreet is about a Puritan wife who expresses her devotion and love to her husband.  This is not a typical behavior in most Puritan households where duty is usually placed above love.  Bradstreet uses figurative language to describe her love, such as “"I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the east doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench,..." (5-7)  She describes her union with her husband in the opening line, “If ever two were one than surly we”  She feels that their union has produced one soul and one purpose in life, to live as one person with the same feelings and hopes and dreams. The next line, “If ever man were loved by wife; than thee”, says that she loves him as much as any wife could love a husband.  She wants to express to her husband that no one could love him as much as she.  In her final lines, “Then when we live, in love let's so persever, That when we live no more we may live ever”, suggests that her love will travel into death.  This poem leads us to believe that the lifestyle of the Puritans wasn’t all obeying the husband and duty to the chores and household, but love was present in some families.  Anne Bradstreet certainly displays this feeling in her poem.  It is sweet and endearing and gives us envy for this Puritan wife’s husband.  He is truly a lucky man.