The lost baby poem (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Thelma Lucille Sayles
- First Published: 1972
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: African Americans, Children, Mothers, Parents and children, Poverty or poor people, Death or dying, Abortion, Infants, Joy or sorrow, Winter
The Poem
Lucille Clifton’s “the lost baby poem” is an elegy—a poem written in mourning for one who has died—yet it is also a lyric of hope and a promise made to an absent presence: the lost baby.
The speaker is a woman who has been forced by her poverty to abort her baby. The “almost body” was swept out to sea with the sewage, she says—an observation both powerfully repulsive and grief-ridden. The questioning refrain, “what did I know about waters rushing back . . .” refers to her inexperience at the time. Could she have found some way to avoid her...
[The entire page is 1588 words long]
