Analysis Of The Poem ' Persimmons ' By Li- Young Lee

Nevertheless, in the poem ‘Nesting time’, Stewart interprets a personal experience in first person of the appearance of a bird that lands upon his daughter and forgets the thought of the harsh world. Stewart’s descriptive language repeatedly explains the poem as if seen in his viewpoint, beginning with an interjection, ‘oh’ communicating of his incredulity of an ‘absurd’ bird. Symbolizing the bird with strong coloured imagery its ‘mossy green, sunlit’, described to be bright and joyful, with sweetness shown with the type of bird, ‘honey-eater’, Douglas Stewart takes the time to describe its admiration juxtaposed to the dangerous world surrounding it. While visualizing the birds actions, ‘pick-pick-pick’ of alliteration and repetition of its

For he then even attempts to “teach” Donna Chinese, but cannot remember certain words. He does, however, remember “to tell her she is beautiful as the moon,” which is not a typical compliment an American male would give. In this stanza, the speaker’s Chinese heritage is actually coming in handy, a thought that probably never crossed his mind when he could not differentiate “persimmon” from “precision.”

The relationship between father and son changes over time, and molds along with the people in encapsulates. As in real life, the father and son who inhabit Li-Young Lee’s poem “A Story” experience sudden changes within their relationship as the time passes on. The son’s cries for a story that slowly change into adult conversations throughout the poem indicate that with maturity and age comes both understanding and hostility.

In the poem, A Story, by Li-Young Lee, a father struggles with the thought of his son growing older. The poem clearly shows fears of how he is afraid of their complex relationship. Lee uses many literary devices to convey this complex relationship of the father and the son through point of view and structure.

David Baker was born in Bangor, Maine in 1954. Throughout his career, he has won multiple awards and fellowships. He was the editor of the Kenyon Review and has been a visiting professor at multiple colleges. Baker is a faculty member in the M.F.A (master of fine arts) program for writers at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina. After reading the poem, one might wonder whether or not the poet has experienced such a heart-rending experience himself.

In the poem, “Shrike Tree”, by Lucia Perillo, the speaker uses the predatory actions of the shrike bird to aid in his acceptance and understanding of death. Perillo has a resigned yet accepting attitude towards the dead birds.

The poem “A Story” by Li young Lee tells of a young child asking his father for story. The boy simply wants a story that he has never heard, his father is bombarded with panic as he seems to think he is disappointing his son. Through analysis of structure, points of view and metaphors this seemingly simple story is transformed into a deep meaningful poem about a complex relationship between a father and son.

The writer makes use of diction to express his feelings towards the literary work and to set the dramatic tone of the poem. Throughout the poem, there is repetition of the word “I”, which shows the narrator’s individual feeling of change in the heart, as he experiences the sight of hundreds of birds fly across the October sky. As the speaker effortlessly recounts the story, it is revealed how deeply personal it is to him. Updike applies the words “flock” and “bird” repetitively to the poem, considering the whole poem is about the sight of seeing so many birds and the effect this has on a person. When the speaker first sees the flock of birds in lines 8-10, alliteration is applied to draw attention to what the narrator is witnessing. In line 29, Updike

In the first stanza, the writer uses many techniques to convey the feeling of loss, when he says,

October, and analyzes the nature around him. At the end of the poem, he states that

In the music video/song “Strange Fruit”, the phrase strange fruit doesn’t really refer to a fruit that is strange. It actually refers to people being lynched and hanging from trees. More specifically, the term strange fruit applies to the lynching of African Americans. This song was performed by Billie Holiday in 1939 at the Cafe Society in New York. The music video was actually a recorded performance from 1959. The song was written and performed because the purpose of was to raise awareness and fight against African American lynching because during that time, African Americans were being discriminated and abused. Billie Holiday in the music video/song “Strange Fruit” displays logos through context and imagery, pathos through her sorrowful tone and facial expressions, and lastly, ethos because she won many awards during her career in singing, and Strange Fruit is one of them.

Lee then transitions back into talking about his sixth-grade class with his teacher in the fifth stanza. The class was given a persimmon, which the teacher refers to it as a “Chinese Apple” (line 43). This specific phrase is italicized making it stand out, maybe it being referred to a “Chinese Apple” sounds odd, but because Lee is from a Chinese culture, he knows more about this fruit than his fellow classmates (line 43). He discusses how he knows that this fruit is not ripe and he chooses not to eat it. This specific instance seems like this is a time in which Lee

To begin the poem, Lee begins by recalling an experience in which he was singled out in class for not knowing the difference between the words “persimmon” and “precision”, probably due to the differences in the Chinese and English Language. This being the first stanza introduces the readers to how Lee finds himself in the position of a cultural outsider to this new American culture. The persimmon in this stanza elicits a more negative memory but is the first interaction between cultures where the persimmon is one of the main focal points. As Steven Yao mentions, “these initial lines establish the body as the site upon which the issue of ethnicity, in its personal as well as social dimensions, will play out over the

Shel Silverstein’s poem, Peanut-Butter Sandwich, revolves around a king and his insatiatable greed for a peanut butter sandwich. Slowly, the king succumbs to his favorite food and his jaws become stuck from the thick peanut butter. The whole town is called and through many different attempts, finally manages to pull the king’s jaws apart. When initially searching for a poem to imitate, I immediately looked to Silverstein. He is very famous and creates jovial poems which easily bring smiles to readers everywhere. Silverstein’s use of rhymes, tone, and organization all lead to a poem that creates a sense of nostalgia in the reader, reminding them of happy thoughts of childhood. I chose to imitate Peanut-Butter Sandwich so I could reproduce those feelings in my audience.

Often at times there are many voices in one poem. These voices represent the different views that come from the same material that are portrayed by the buzz that the bee elicit in the hive. The proposal that Collins is trying to exude is that there is never one way to read a poem. The type of approach will vary with reader and who they are, but by having a radical approach it will help to enhance our understanding of what the poem means. Collins wants the reader to feel free when analyzing a poem: “I want them to waterski across the surface of the poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.” As a teacher you try to pummel depth into your students’ minds and push them into the direction of understanding. The speaker declares that the grapple to illuminating meaning and the amount of time where the reader does not understand adds to the worth of the poem. The parallel to the surface of water, where you have not attained the depth even though you know it’s there is important to how much it takes to find the true meaning of a poem. While reading this poem it have the outlook on how poetry places more of aln emphasis on us to be able to pick apart the undisclosed meaning and essentially to be able to pull apart the poem without a fixed structure. By doing it this way it is able to help the audience to build upon skills to help interpret and understand, which substantially is important throughout any source of literature. We