Blessing the boats clifton5/26/2023 It would make sense that in this case the speaker is using “boats” as a metaphor for a body but also for something more than the mere physical form of a person. Clifton’s writing style is very minimalist - style-wise and with her language. Each section of poetry tends to have similarities, including theme and the recurrence of foxes. The book is split into different sections from different time periods of her life. In their most rudimentary form, a boat is a vessel that crosses water and often carries life or lives aboard. Blessing the Boats is a book of poetry from Lucille Clifton. Presumably the boats may be a metaphor for the body or for a life. Next, “boats,” as plural suggests that she is going beyond her own “boat” to encompass multiple boats. This makes the “blessing” available to everyone who reads it and not to anyone in particular. The poem moves on to use the pronoun “our” (Line 3) and “you” (Line 4) rather than “I.” Clifton is drawing a circle that encompasses multiple people, including herself, the reader, and perhaps others who are not specifically named. The poem is about blessing, but it is not totally clear what the boats are. Beginning with the title “blessing the boats”, the speaker sets up an immediate intention. It relies on metaphors, and each metaphor may have several nuanced interpretations. Lucille Clifton (1936 - 2010) was an award winning poet, fiction writer, and author of childrens books. Like many of Clifton’s poems, “blessing the boats” is short but dense.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |