Clifton Poetry Response

This author begins their analysis with a bare-bones description of poet Lucille Clifton's life and authorial perspective. Specifically the author notes the lack of capitalization or punctuation in the poems of Lucille Clifton. However, this aspect is only marginally noted and no analysis is provided as to why Clifton made these choices. It would help this author in their analysis if they put forth a kind of thesis explaining why this is notable and what the purpose within the poem is of this technique.

In discussing the poem "The Lost Baby Poem," this author explains that they believe the meaning of this poem is that someone has lost a baby. They state that one line refers to physically dropping a child while the next they interpret to mean that they baby has died at birth or was perhaps aborted. These are two different interpretations of the same text and perhaps limiting the analysis to one argument or perhaps in providing further examples of why the interpretation is intentionally convoluted would be a help to anyone reading this author's response. The second analysis, that of the poem "My Dream of Being White" is also sparse. In fact, it is limited to two sentences and does not provide enough insight into either the poem or the author's analysis of it.

Lastly, the author of this analysis talks about imagery and figurative language. In this, the author is more successful in making convincing arguments. The idea of interpreting the word "mountain" as an indicator of strength is particularly interesting. When the word is used, strength is not the immediate adjective that comes to mind. Within the context of Clifton's poems it does make sense that she would use something large and permanent to represent strength when the dynamics of male and female, and the dynamics of ethnicities are concerned.