#209-Good Times

In the poem, Good Times, by Lucille Clifton, the speaker of the poem is tremendously important. It appears that it is a little girl relating the poem to the audience. Clifton either uses the girl to represent herself and her childhood. So in essence, the speaker of the poem is the author, she is just speaking through a created character. Knowing Clifton's background helps understand her reasons for writing the poem. She was African American and faced many financial and family hardships growing up in an age where it was hard enough on African Americans without having to worry about personal issues. In the poem, Clifton is relating personal experience to the audience. The last line shows that the poem is a message to perhaps her own children as her family may be facing hard times, and she is trying to tell them that things will get better. While structured rhyme scheme and meter are not present in this poem, the freeness and unstructuredness of it add to the overall meaning immensely. Not only is Clifton writing about difficulties in her family, but she is also rebelling against a society that has not yet accepted the equality of African Americans. By not having a structured, organized poem, Clifton is able to rebel against a society dominated by white tradition and ideals. Many consider her to be one of the great Black Aesthetic poets who focused on creating her own style of writing through unconventional structures. Another trademark of Clifton's in the poem is the lack of capitalization in places where capitalization would be expected. For example, in line 4 uncle is lower cased despite it being a title and the only lines that begin with a capital letter are the first lines of the first two stanzas. All of these aspects help make Clifton's poem very unique and personal, which support the meaning of the poem.

Lucille Clifton makes use of two simple, yet extremely effective literary devices to add to the meaning of the poem. The first one she uses is diction/syntax. The style of her writing is very colloquial, which gives the audience the sense of the poem being authentic and based on real life. She names family members using childish titles such as Daddy, Mama, and Grampaw. These names are important because it shows that the poem is a recollection of the author's. Clifton uses the little girl as the speaker to make poem appear to be in real time. If Clifton had written it as a memory, but used words like Dad, Mom, and Grandfather, the experience of reading the poem would have been lessened because it would not feel like it was coming straight from real life. She also writes using improper grammar at points to again show that the poem is from her point of view as a child. For example, she says, "they is good times" (line 7). If, instead, Clifton had wrote 'they were good times' the effectiveness of having the child speaking would have been lost. The word were would have been more matter of fact that personal. Another device utilized by Clifton in the poem is repetition. In the first two stanzas, good times is repeated three times at the end. This added emphasis is key because it shows the attempt by Clifton to reassure the reader that there are good times even though things may be difficult now. Another repeated word is kitchen in the second stanza. Generally good things happen in the kitchen. Food is made, laughs are shared, and memories are made. A kitchen is generally a joyous place and by repeating the word it just adds to the message of the poem.

On the whole, I thought Clifton's poem was a very creative piece. She tastefully relates a childhood experience while rebelling against white society that has yet to grant equality to African Americans. I enjoyed how Clifton paints the image of financial hardship by saying, "My Daddy has paid the rent/and the insurance man is gone" (1-2). I could see the scene being an inner city with Clifton's family trying to make ends meet. The poem was uplifting, though, because despite their money problems, they made the best of what they had when they had it. I also was fond of the style Clifton wrote in. The dialect and structure helped put me in the scene so I could really appreciate what Clifton was writing about. It was also great how she was using the poem as a sign of hope for good things to come during bad times, and on the larger scale perhaps equality of all people in society.