Lucille Clifton

Poet

• Born: June 27, 1936
• Birthplace: Depew, New York
• Died: February 13, 2010
• Place of death: Baltimore, Maryland

The author of more than thirty books, Clifton was one of the most prolific writers of her time. Her subjects focused on the family, the female body, and above all else, honesty. Part of her dedication to honesty can be seen in her style. Her use of African American vernacular coupled with a lack of traditional capitalization allowed Clifton to write poems about the human condition that are simple, but precise.

Early Life

Thelma Lucille Sayles Clifton was the daughter of Thelma Moore and Samuel Louis Sayles. At birth, Clifton had twelve fingers and a bad left eye. Later, she would associate these traits with a feminist, visionary search for the truth. Clifton’s household consisted of her mother, father, older brother Sammy, and two half sisters—Josie, from her father’s first marriage, and Elaine, the daughter of her father’s mistress. Both of Clifton’s parents were enthusiastic storytellers and Clifton embraced this tradition. Clifton’s siblings would often ask her to share her stories with them, even doing her chores in exchange. Despite the awkward circumstances of her birth, Elaine was the sibling to whom Clifton was closest; Elaine also was only six months younger than she. Elaine appears frequently in Clifton’s poems, which often stress the importance of family and the female bond. Clifton’s mother also is a frequent character, and it was from Thelma that Clifton received the most support for her poetry. Although neither of Clifton’s parents finished elementary school, Thelma wrote poetry, preferring traditional iambic verse. Clifton, however, wrote in a free form that challenged grammar and punctuation rules. She described her father’s condemnation of her mother’s poetry as an incentive to write her own. Clifton’s relationship with her father was complicated by his verbal abuse of her mother and his sexual abuse of her. The incestuous relationship with her father was a topic that Clifton would revisit in her adult poetry.

Life’s Work

In 1953, Clifton began college at Howard University on a full scholarship. There, she met many writers who would later become famous, including James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. In 1954, she transferred to Fredonia State College, where she met her future husband, Fred Clifton. Lucille’s father did not approve of Fred, so the couple eloped on May 10, 1958. In 1959, her mother died. This was a difficult time in Clifton’s life, which she mediated through visions that allowed her to speak with her mother. Between 1960 and 1965, Clifton and her husband had six children. She found motherhood and the full house that accompanied it an encouraging environment in which to write poetry. Clifton was never sure how to go about publishing her poems, so she would simply send them to famous poets. Her poems were passed around in this way until she was selected for the 1969 Young Women’s and Young Men’s Poetry Center Discovery Award. At the awards ceremony, she was approached by a Random House publisher who offered to publish her first book, Good Times (1969), which was selected by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of the year. In 1984, Clifton’s husband died from lung cancer. Clifton and Fred’s relationship had been a close one that included the sharing of poetry, academics, spirituality, and activism. His loss was difficult for Clifton, and she reacted to it and memorialized Fred in many of her poems.

During her career, Clifton wrote more than thirty books, including poetry, memoirs, and children’s literature. She served as Maryland’s poet laureate from 1979 to 1985 and held various teaching positions at colleges and universities throughout her career. She enjoyed teaching a great deal and often wrote about her students as though they were also her family. Clifton taught at St. Mary’s College in Maryland for eighteen years until her retirement in 2007.

Three volumes of her poetry were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she won the National Book Award in 2000 for Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000. In 2007, she won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the first time the award had gone to an African American woman. Shortly before her death in February, 2010, she received the Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America.

Significance

Clifton’s poetry has a strong African American, feminist voice that challenges oppression and insincerity. Her themes revolve around the basics of life—its struggles and joys, from birth to death. Clifton wrote about a wide range of topics in simple, human terms.

Bibliography

Clifton, Lucille. Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000. Rochester, N.Y.: BOA Editions, 2000. An anthology of Clifton’s work, it includes selections that cover the bulk of her career.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Generations: A Memoir. New York: Random House, 1976. Clifton describes her family and her search for meaning in her roots.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Good Times: Poems. New York: Random House, 1969. Clifton’s first book of poetry offers a useful look at her early style and development.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Good Woman Poems and a Memoir, 1969-1980. Brockport, N.Y.: BOA Editions, 1987. This memoir looks at Clifton’s life in later years and the poems that accompanied it.

Holladay, Hilary. Wild Blessings: The Poetry of Lucille Clifton. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. Provides biographical information about Clifton and her life’s work.

Lupton, Mary Jane. Lucille Clifton: Her Life and Letters. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006. Offers a detailed look at Clifton’s life through interviews with the poet as well as family and friends.