September Suite

Flags, songs, and divine blessings are all tools for the Americans in Clifton’s poems to coalesce around in the face of terrorism. These symbols of modern nation states are common enough in civilian life, although they have a militaristic quality. What exactly the citizens in Clifton’s poems are rallying for is never explicitly stated. American media from the aftermath shows a large number of Americans ready and eager to go to war and spill blood abroad, as Clifton describes in Lines 12-13 of “Wednesday 9/12/01.”

Whether the United States might be accurately described as an empire is debated. Those calling for war in 2001 were aware of how, if America were to act without the support of other world powers, the country would be charged with “hegemony or imperialism” (Sabath, Kenneth M. “In a Wounded Land, the Drums of September.” New York Times, 2001). The word “exempt” (Line 10) in “Tuesday 9/11/01” references American exceptionalism, the concept that “the United States is fundamentally different from other developed countries and has a special role in the world” (Scott, Janny. “9/11 Leaves Its Mark on History Classes.” New York Times, 2006). As Clifton says, such violence is known in other places but not here.