Lucille’s father did not approve of his wife’s writing poetry and one night burned some of her work in a scene Clifton later recalled in her poetry. Lucille recounts her mother teaching her how to write poetry as a child.

Lucille’s mother was herself a poet who wrote in formal meter. As a writer she would be known by her middle name, Lucille, which means light. Originally, she was given the name Thelma Lucille Sayles, but adopted her husband’s last name, Clifton, when they married in the 1950s. Lucille Clifton was born on Jin Buffalo, New York, where she spent her formative years. From her office she would have had a view of the boats on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, which likely helped influence this work. Mary’s College of Maryland where Clifton was Distinguished Professor of Humanities from 1995 to 1999. The poem makes it clear that it was written at St. This helps make it accessible to everyone. It reads like a prayer and mimics some of the phrases of the famous Irish blessing, “May the Road Rise to Meet You.” Like so many of Clifton’s poems it abandons typical capitalization and regular meter to use more informal and irregular patterns of speech. Using this metaphor makes the meaning of the poem less rooted in her specific personal experience and more applicable to anyone going through changes. She repeats the phrase “may” (Lines 1, 6, 9, and 12) in wishing the listener or reader of the poem faith as they sail “through this to that” (Line 13). (To hear Bill Murray read this accompanied by The Carnival of the Animals, click here.) (at St.In the poem the speaker uses boats as a metaphor for transition through difficult and uncertain times. That the freest way to let go is to do so with grace, trust, and humility. As the speaker waves goodbye to her well-wishee, we are reminded of an important lesson: The piece holds the unknown in its awareness elements that could be forceful-like water and wind-are wished to be gentle. Boats disembark into the distance, and the speaker must watch them go. The reader encounters a sending-off, of sorts. In blessing the boats, Lucille Clifton offers an embodiment of prayer. So, what does it look like when we trust that the wind will love our back? Worse yet, we may not truly live if we expect the elements not to be working on our side. While we may wish for calm weather and smooth waters, it is important to recognize that, ultimately, we may not be able to control the external. We bargain with uncertainty, convinced that we should only embark if we know that it is safe from whatever we fear. Consider how often we hold ourselves and each other back from embracing the unknown.

Blessing the boats clifton