Poem Analysis : Li Young Lee

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

Li-Young Lee in this poem concentrated on memories that provide both joy and sadness as they allow us to recall the happy or sad moments with our loved ones as we prepare ourselves for future. Lee examine his emotional relationship to his father in the past with hoping that remembering all those moments will help him integrate those memories with his father into his own life. “Windblown, a rain-soaked bough shakes, showering the man and the boy. They shiver in delight, and the father lifts from his son’s cheek one green leaf fallen like a kiss.” Lee uses images in this poem to show the readers his idea about the memory rather than telling all at once because he thought this way has more emotional impact because

The father does not like “the sound of the place, an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors [that] sometimes break the illusion and set the years moving.” He always talks about how “there were no years” and how everything was so constant. However, he is getting to the point where he is starting to know that his future is near. He starts to realize that when a thunderstorm comes. This brought the father “the revival of an old melodrama that [he] had seen long ago with childish awe.”He is no longer confused about who he is anymore, and he knows that he is getting old. As he starts to accept this, the lake which he saw was “infinitely precious and worth saving [is now] a curious darkening of the sky, and a lull in everything that had made life tick.” Although he realizes that it is what it is, he knows that this is something he will have to accept, and his son is the new generations who is going to hold the future. His son, whom he always got confused as himself, now sees his son for his child. When the son goes swimming, the father “languidly, and with no thought of [swimming]. . .saw [his son] winch slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment.” Seeing how his son is strong and independent gives him the “chill of death.” He finally realizes that he is no longer a child, he is an adult who is going to die. A new generation will take his place, and

Racist terms can be used positively, but only depending on the preference of the person being addressed. The society that we live in today opposes the use of racist language, but it can be used positively with other people. In her essay “The Meaning of a Word,” Gloria Naylor wants the audience to understand her past experience with the word “nigger.” According to Naylor, the racist term can impact anybody negatively. However, I believe such languages can bring out unity, diversity, and a feeling of acknowledgment. Different races also use racist terms in a funny and friendly way. The common word “nigga” is used almost everywhere in this way. Similarly, Christine Leong’s essay “Being a Chink” discusses how racist terms like “chink” are used in a friendly and compassionate way. From the two essays, I favor Leong’s essay because she states how racist terms can be used as a trend of assimilating everyone together. At the end of the day, racist terms can express unity and diversity.

The poem “Persimmons” by Li- Young Lee tells the story about the poet’s life, flashing back to his early childhood and adulthood having trouble adjusting to the English language. English was not his first language, which caused more confusion than understanding of new words. Persimmons shows how words can mean different things, but also how when someone truly loves you, some opposite words can have the same meaning. The poet is bashed by his sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Walker, but with the help of his mother and father he can overcome English boundaries and gain knowledge through their love.

The son at first calls his father “baba”, a symbol of both mutual respect and a childlike viewpoint of his father, suggesting he looks up to him as a person. However, he later mockingly calls him a “god”, making fun of his so called authority as his father. Then, right at the end of the poem, he reverts back to his childish ways, calling him “baba” once more, even begging him to “please” read him another story. This shift from respect, to anger, then back to respect represents the circular nature of growing up. While one learns to rebel as they get older, their anger and hostility is replaced with that same wonder and admiration as there existed in the beginning. Even though the son loses respect for his father, he is able to gain it back through his life experience in growing up, furthering the fact that with maturation comes both positive and negative reverberations hand in hand.

Could make a small boy dizzy” (Lines 1-2). Meaning The father has been drinking, and not just a little. He's so intoxicated that even the smell of his breath could make a small boy, like his son, feel a bit woozy. This gives a first impression of a father being intoxicated who has the ability to harm the child. For most it is not a great situation when a drunken adult presents himself to a child. This poem could be seen as a depiction of a young boy’s experience of abuse from his father. “But I hang on like death” seems to show a child’s frightful feeling from having to face a drunken father. The image in my head here is that of the father and his child waltzing around the kitchen with the boy having to hold on like death. The word death could have been intended to emphasize the helplessness of the child against his drunken

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.

Children are often too juvenile and ignorant to comprehend all that is done for them. The narrator of this poem is now a grown man and is looking back on his childhood. He says that he would “[speak] indifferently to [his father], who had driven out the cold, and polished my good shoes as well.” (Hayden) After working hard all week to provide for his family, the narrator's father would wake early Sunday mornings to tend to his family. As a grown man, he sees how much effort his father put in to keep him content. Sometimes it was difficult to see this because he was overcome by fear: “...slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic anger of that house.” (Hayden). Though the narrator was intimidated by his father, he still loved and appreciated him. This father- son relationship is unique because the bond grows and develops as a strong connection throughout time, with the help of maturity. The narrator of this poem recognises the unappreciated family sacrifices that are made which only improves the bond between a boy and his

He also describes the conditions of the father's hands demonstrating that he was a hard worker and still woke up before everyone else to warm up the rooms. The father basically says love in the simple act he does. Like many people I can personally relate to this poem. My father was not always demonstrative and affectionate but during my childhood years he always made sure I had everything I needed. That showed me that my father cared.

After the reader makes an effort and takes his or her time to fully comprehend the poem entirely, it becomes clearer that correlatively related ideas are expressed throughout the poem. The correlations between several metaphors extend to intensify ideas about the father. As the speakers’ father is compared to being “an angel” he does not literally mean that his father was an angel with wings or an angel from biblical times because that would be improbable for the reader to assume. What the speaker seems to suggest through his metaphor is that his father was his savior and helper. This idea is intensified throughout the poem because the father is being compared to a “lamb” which is symbolic for Christ, a globally symbolic healer and helper; the speaker also states his father was a getaway driver which suggests that his father guided him away from danger. Because the speaker also compares his father to a law abiding, favorable, person such as a “cowboy” or a “Texas Ranger” it seems as if he is trying to guide the reader’s interpretation of a “getaway driver” away from a an illegal activity such as robing a bank. In addition to comparing his father to helpers and getaway drivers, the speaker also states his father “drove the boys away.” This famous metaphor describing the driving of the boys away is known to be symbolic of a father directing

In the poem the speaker tells us about how his father woke up early on Sundays and warmed the house so his family can wake up comfortably. We are also told that as he would dress up and head down stairs he feared ¨the chronic angers of that house¨, which can be some sort of quarrel between his father and his mother in the house. This can also lead the reader to believe that the father may have had been a hard dad to deal with. However the father would polish his son's shoes with his cracked hands that ached. This shows the love that the father had for his son and now that the son has grown he realizes what his father did for him. The sons morals and feelings have changed him because as he has grown to become a man he has learned the true meaning of love is being there for one's family and not expecting it to be more than what it is. Consequently this teaches him a lesson on how much his father loved him and how much he regrets not telling him thank

With the use of imagery, the poet communicates to the reader the emotional bond between the father and his son. In the first stanza of the poem, the he illustrates a clear picture between the son and the father. "The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy But I hung on like death Such waltzing was not easy." the poet is saying that the father may not be the best father in the world with his breath smelling like whiskey, but despite that, the son hangs on like death. The simile the poet

Eating alone is a great poem written by Li-Young Lee, it is showing how lonely and sad is the writer, and how he spent every meal alone. It a very emotional and affective poem, it has a lot of different meanings and emotions that the author stated in the poem. Now I will discuss the rhythm and the meter of the poem, and identify the subject of the poem and the speaker tone in it. I will also try to explain the whole poem in this essay.

In the poem, I get a sense that there is no bond, like my father and I have which leads to confusion in the narrator's life. For instance, in line eight when he says, "I would slowly rise and dress,/ fearing the chronic angers of the house"(8-9), this gives me a strong sense of sadness, for him because I feel that he is greatly deprived of what every child should have a good role model as a father, and someone to look up to. “Speaking Indifferently to him, / who had driven out the cold”(10-11) is saying that they really did not know how to communicate with each other. I feel that the boy will regret not having and knowing what it is that makes you who you are, and may never get a chance to have and hold a special bond with his father and having a relationship with a person that can not be held with anyone else. This would bring an enormous amount of sadness to my life had I not had my Dad there to guide and protect me, when I could have used tremendous support and security.