Poetry Journal #2 (2nd poem)

I Am Accused of Tending to the Past

I am accused of tending to the past
as if I made it,
as if I sculpted it
with my own hands. I did not.
this past was waiting for me
when I came,
a monstrous unnamed baby,
and I with my mother's itch
took it to breast
and named it
History.
she is more human now,
learning languages everyday,
remembering faces, names and dates.
when she is strong enough to travel
on her own, beware, she will.

By Lucille Clifton

S: The author
O: At the turning point of history
A: The world
P: to show that history is changing; it is at its turning point.
S: History
Tone: philosophical, defensive


Personal Response:

In this poem Lucille Clifton writes about having to conform to the past, letting it shape our choices and decisions. But with time, he argues, the past also helps us become wiser as we learn to desist from making the same mistakes and learn to remake history. I truly like the way the author writes about the past as if it were a child and the speaker the mother. By personifying the past, history, the author really brings home his message in the poem: that we, as humans, are responsible for the past and it is our responsibility to reshape it. I think this poem is important, and very much reflective of the issues taking place in society today. We are in a point in time were events are sure to mark the way we are to view our future actions; history is at its turning point. China’s economy, for instance, is growing at very high rates and if it is to keep progressing the way in this way it is estimated that it might replace the United States and become the next superpower in about twenty years. The economy that is known to us at this moment would be transformed; all from the relationships between countries and the way we trade would take a different turn. At this moment we can only but anticipate what might happen and embrace our past actions in an attempt to avoid a future that will harm new generations. We can only but nurture the history that was made before us; awful events that have marked our existence like the holocaust and the 9/11 terrorists attack must be used to help nurture history and teach it to walk and “travel” in the right direction.