Poem Analysis: Miss Rosie By Lucile Clifton

In the poem “miss rosie” by Lucile Clifton we receive a severely detailed description of an old woman on the street. Lucile Clifton brought a unique way of encouraging a character to rebuild themselves and bringing out the better in them. It also brings in the saying of “Breaking someone down to build them back up” which means that you have to strip someone down to recreate the great person that was inside of them the whole time. In a sense it implies what she is right now is like the outside of a bananas and at the end of the poem they are peeled off. The poem sends out a message letting the reader know that no matter whatever a person goes through, or whatever they look like they can still be like Miss Rosie and “stand up” (Line 16) to

find themselves.

In the beginning of the poem the narrator of the poem is “breaking down” Miss Rosie or insulting her and calling her various names based on her description. The narrator tells Miss Rosie that she is “wrapped up in garbage” (Line 2) or that she is “surrounded by the smell of too old potatoes” (Lines 3-4). This gives Miss Rosie and the reader that she is nothing more than trash meaning she is stuck where she is without any way of getting out. Then in the poem Lucile Clifton puts the word “or” (Line 5) which usually means that anything said before that does not pertain to future context. However, the narrator still continues to describe Miss Rosie hurtfully.

After the separation in the poem, the narrator tells Miss Rosie describes her, “old man’s shoes with the little toe cut out” (Lines 7-8) which is an insult referring to the masculine features of Miss Rosie. These masculine references are phallic symbols which is anything resembling power or dominance. Usually a powerful man has “old man shoes” to step over others in the route to success. Then, the poem further describes Miss Rosie as this stagnant figure on the street or , “sitting, waiting for your mind like next week’s groceries” (Lines 8-9). However, in the end of the poem we see a change in Miss Rosie’s behavior.

The end of the poem is basically the turnaround for Miss Rosie and the narrator as well.

The narrator begins the last lines in the poem again describing Miss Rosie disgracefully stating, “ you wet brown bag of a woman” (Line 13) which is still in the “breaking down” process of the poem. Surprisingly, the narrator begins to encourage Miss Rosie referring to the past saying she was, “the best looking gal in Georgia” (Line 14) and how she was called, “ the Georgia Rose” (Line 15) meaning that Miss Rosie was once a beautiful woman. Then the narrator states “i stand up through your destruction” (Lines 16-17) meaning that the narrator will learn from Miss Rosie’s mistakes and will live a better life. Even though Miss Rosie is insulted throughout the whole poem the narrator lets her know that she is a role model and that she should “pick herself back up”.

Overall, “miss rosie” was an enticing poem giving the reader a sense of encouragement by stripping them down with insults to reveal the better person inside. The poem also shows the reader to learn from other’s mistakes which is essential because if that makes the same mistakes they will end up in the same position. The narrator was reminding Miss Rosie that she used to be this great woman when she was younger, and that was she is now is a disgrace to look at. The narrator also gives Miss Rosie a brief hint to get her life back together. “miss rosie” is a great life-lesson poem for all

readers.