‘The Lost Baby Poem’ by Lucille Clifton
Abortion is a topic that has instigated a lot of arguments and debates, there are those that support abortion and there are those that are against it. Those that support abortion argue that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her body and she should not be forced to have a baby that she is not prepared to have. The others argue that having an abortion is an act of murder because life begins after a baby is conceived. ‘The lost baby poem’ by Lucille Clifton is an abortion poem that brings to light some of the reasons why women go through abortion, some of the main reasons mentioned include poverty and fear of the well-being of their babies.
The poem is about a woman that reminisces about a child that she could have had if she did not have an abortion. The child was expected to have been born in winter, a time that is denoted by financial problems. The woman does not regret her decision because she feels that it would have been a mistake, but promises to take care of her other children. The poem that has three stanzas has no rigid structure and this helps in making the poem more personal. It helps the reader to understand and actually witness a mother explaining to her unborn child why she had to do to terminate her before she was born.
The first stanza of the poem, the speaker explains how she performed the abortion. ‘“The time I dropped you almost body down down to meet that water under the city and run one with sewage to the sea what did I know about water rushing back what about drowning or being drowned” (line 1-6). She keeps repeating herself and the lower cases are used on the ‘I’, symbolizing a sense of shame as a mother for what she did. She feels that after what she did, she does not deserve to be capitalized. The lower case is also to avoid making the poem s personal so that it applies to many other mothers of her time that did the same thing to protect their children. The poem ends with a tone of remorse, blame and even self-pity.
In the second stanza, the speaker makes excuses for why she did what she did, arguing that it was all for the benefit of the unborn baby. “You would have been born into winter the year of the disconnected gas and no car” (Line 7-9). She tries to explain that she was poor at the time and she would not have been able to take care of the baby. The mother illustrates that where she lived at the time was far from the city “We would have the think walk over Genesee hill into Canada “wind” (line 9-10). She argues that even though she had the baby, it would not have survived and she would have had to ensure a loss. This stanza illustrates that this mother had many issues at the time that convinced her that abortion was the only way out.
The third stanza has a different tone and perspective from the first two stanzas, she is hopeful of the future and she has learned from the mistakes that she made. “If I am ever less than a mountain for your definite brother and sisters let the rivers pour over my head let the sea take me for a spiller of seas” (line 15-19), she promises to improve her ways and swears never to do what she did to her unborn child to her brothers and sisters. She understands that what she did was a mistake and she was forced by circumstances, she however promises never to allow the pressures of the world to force her to do what she did. The ending of the poem represents strength and courage of the woman to face the world without fear.
Clifton was born in Western New York State to a father that was a steel worker and a mother who was a laundress (Encyclopaedia Britannica, p 1). Her family origin gave her an advantage to understand the issues that faced women especially black women that had to fight for their place in the society and hence her feminist themes in most of her poems. This poem is personal to Clifton in that she at one time attempted a home abortion that was unsuccessful. Clifton tried to terminate her last born child Alexis with pills and coat hangers at her home, because she was not ready to have a baby (Lupton, p 7). The story of Clifton and the speaker in choosing abortion is a representation of the choices that women have to make, whether they are in high or even low social status.
Abortion in the 1970s was a common thing because it was a time before abortion was legalized, and the adoption system was not like the modern day open adoptions (Lupton, p 8). This was a time when America was facing stagflation and so taking care of children was not an easy option for many mothers (Lupton, p 8). The mothers that opted for adoption suffered great emotional distress because they had no way of knowing who adopted their children and how their children were doing. This is however not enough reason to support abortion. What this mother did to her unborn child in the poem was wrong and though she tries to justify her actions, her reasons are not worthy. All her stated reasons are speculations, she really had no idea what would happen. She presumes that it would be a harsh winter, but she really did not know whether this would happen. There are many children that are born in harsh winters and they survive just fine. The mother should have given the child a chance to live by being as strong as she is promising to be for the other children that she will have.
Abortion is wrong; it denies a child the chance of living and it risks the lives of the mothers. Abortion also causes emotional distress on the mothers who feel ashamed of their actions, and always feel the need to apologise to their unborn babies as evidenced by the poem. Abortion should be illegalized because it I not any different from murder. There are many women who are struggling to get pregnant and they would really appreciate it if they were given a chance to have a child that they can take care of and call them their own. The adoption system should be well structure to facilitate proper care of children and to also motivate more mothers to opt for adoption services instead of abortion. The society should be educated on the negative effects of abortion and Adoption should be adopted as an effective strategy to help reduce abortion rates in America and the rest of the world.
Works Cited
Clifton, Lucille. “The Lost Baby Poem by Lucille Clifton.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry
Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53239/the-lost-baby-poem.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lucille Clifton.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc., 23 June 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucille-Clifton.
Lupton, Mary J. Lucille Clifton: Her Life and Letters. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2006. Print.
