Document Type
Essay
Publication Date
9-2009
Abstract
In Mercy, Clifton situates herself and the reader amid the terror of September 11, 2001, and excavates from this horrific tragedy a sign of redemptive liberation. Clifton's most sensitive readers also point to the affirmative tone of her poetry which sustains and uplifts what otherwise might be a nihilistic view of life.
In her thirteenth book of published poetry - Mercy (2004), Lucille Clifton encapsulates many concepts which have evolved in nearly four decades of poetry making. Mercy demonstrates Clifton’s consistent and persistent adaptation of various spiritual traditions to arrive - at a vision of interconnectedness between the ordinary and extraordinary, in everyday life.
Recommended Citation
DiPace, Angela, "Lucille Clifton's Mercy" (2009). Presidential Seminar on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. 12.
https://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/mission_seminar/12
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Comments
Submitted as a Catholic Intellectual Tradition Research Project.