Lucille Clifton’s poem “the lost baby poem” comes from Good Woman: Poem and a Memoir: 1969-1980. This 1987 collection earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination, as did another of her collections, Next: New Poems. She was the first poet to have two books chosen at once as finalists.

The poem tackles the controversial subject of abortion, as a mother—the speaker—confronts the trauma of her abortion and the surrounding circumstances. The poem is addressed to the imagined child of the terminated pregnancy, while the speaker promises to be strong for her other children in lieu of the child she could not have. The speaker reflects on that time in her life, calling specific attention to her poverty and the hopelessness she felt at the time. The poem shows Clifton’s characteristic writing style: unconventional capitalization or punctuation with brief lines and short stanzas. Using a metaphor of the sea, the speaker seeks closure with her abortion even when the painful memories come floating back to the surface.

Poet Biography

Lucille Clifton, born June 1936 in Buffalo, New York, was an American poet, writer, and teacher, holding the title of Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1979 to 1985. After graduating high school, she studied at Howard University, later transferring to SUNY Fredonia to be closer to her hometown. In 1958, she met her husband Fred Clifton, an artist and philosophy professor, and they had six children together. Mutual friend and writer Ishmael Reed was impressed by Clifton’s poetry and passed along some of her work to Langston Hughes, a very prolific and respected writer who emerged during the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes included her poems in his anthology The Poetry of the Negro, kickstarting her career as a poet.

Clifton published her first poetry collection Good Times in 1969, and The New York Times listed it as one of the best 10 books of the year. Clifton went on to teach at many universities and produce numerous poetry collections. Clifton’s work is often concerned with the body, and typically includes themes of endurance and strength in the face of adversity, particularly relating to the experiences of Black women. Clifton is known for her distinctive writing style that omits capitalization and punctuation and opts for relatively short lines and stanzas. Although Clifton’s work is often brief, her writing reveals the poignant and intimate inner worlds of her subjects, tackling themes and topics that could be considered taboo, troubling, or sad. In addition to her poetry, Clifton also wrote many children’s books aimed at Black American children to help them understand and embrace their culture, history, and heritage. Up until the end of her life, Clifton continued writing as a way of preserving hope and connection with others. She passed away in February 2013.

Poem Text

Clifton, Lucille. “the lost baby poem.” 1987. The Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem opens with a metaphor for the memory of the speaker’s abortion. She recalls the specific moment she released or discarded her pregnancy down a drain, where it flowed through the pipes and plumbing into the sewers of the city, and eventually out to sea. What she did not realize was the way that water moves: when pushed in one direction it will inevitably flow back. Painful memories and grief are like these strong currents of water, and can make a person feel like they are drowning.

In the second stanza, she recalls more details about the time of her abortion, pointing out that it was wintertime and they had no car or heat in their home. The speaker believes that because of these conditions, if she had gone through with her pregnancy, she would still have been forced to give her baby up for adoption, but to a stranger she couldn’t trust. She believes if she’d born the child, their life would not have been good. At the same time, if the child were here, she could tell them this story, or other stories about her life.

In the final stanza, she pledges to be strong like a mountain for the children she did and will have. She asks that if she cannot be strong for them, to let the same current that carried away her imagined child pour over her head. She asks for the sea to swallow her for her carelessness. She asks for Black men to never come near her or get to know her, lest she should become pregnant again and fail another child. In honor of this child she could not have, she asks for all of this as punishment if she should fail her living children.