Poetry Jourbal #4

Cesar Sanchez

AP Lit.

February 8, 2007

Personal Response: “I am accused of tending to the past” by Lucille Clifton

S- Someone who is reminiscing about the past and how they had a child.

O- The occasion could be giving birth to a child.

A- The audience is someone who can relate to the poem and how having a child has affected them.

P- The purpose is so people can see how the past and having a baby affects a human being.

S- The subject is how the having a baby will affect not only ones future, but the baby as well.

Tone- Reminiscing about having a child and how it affects individuals.

This poem relate to my life because I have to live with the past of my family. A past that not only haunts my life, but makes it harder for me to understand why I had to mature at a very young age. My mother was not supposed to have me, but an unexpected pregnancy lead to my existence. I was not the last to come out of my mother womb, but I was the one who suffered while she maintained a job to support six children. I may not have been attended by my mother every minute to make sure I was fine, but I was able to understand that she was not ready to have a fifth child at that time of her life. Now that I am older, I have noticed that amongst the Latin culture many girls are getting pregnant without realizing the consequences. They are unsure of how they will manage a child, but they are quick to decide if they want to have one. The circumstances they try to raise a child are not always the best, but they do create a stronger character out of the child and the mother. Together, they may learn that life is not always easy and one must work hard to be able to live another day. In addition, I also believe that the poem describes how the past of ones parents affects our future. We are not able to decide the actions are parents make before we are born, but we are capable of being placed into certain circumstances. Especially if the past is not something positive, rather negative, that will affect a child for the rest of their lives.