Jean Srisakulpinyo

Mr.Peter
June 13, 2559 BE

Li - Young Lee
Poetry essay

Death is a challenge things. It tells us not to waste time but it lets us know that we need

to tell each other right now that we love each other. Li-Young Lee is an American poet which

his poem are well know as an english poem. His family were Chinese but poem himself was

establish as an American poem. Li- Young Lee poem have both short and long poem.

According to his life, love does not depend on the distance but it depend on owners heart as

the poet whose father was exiled and spent time in prison for nineteen months in an

Indonesian camp. Then his father was pass away from him. However, this might show the far

relationship but he still love his dad and all this poem start to occur. Most of his poem talk

about his feeling of his father that he miss him so much. For instance, Pillow, Little father,

and Eating together. All of this represent his feeling & care toward his dad by using theme,

symbol and imagery in his poem.

To start with, Pillow, Little father and Eating together has the same theme with different

word express. Li-Young Lee illustrate his emotional about his father thought poem, which is

tenderness and care that no one can take it back just left only the memory. According to

Li-Young Lee poem, Pillow, Night is the shadow of my fathers hands / setting the clock for

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resurrection (Dimitrov, n.d.). In this stanza, it show that he miss his action in the pass that

his father had done for him since he was a kid. For instance, when he was a child his father

put him on the chair, and read Bible to him every night. Therefore, he think that his father is

the night shadow of the hands clock that he want his father to recuperation and did several

thing that his father done for him. Moreover, in this poem, Little father, I buried my father in

my heart. / Now he grows in me, /. (Share, 2003). This stanza show that his father is part

of his life. The poet use heart which is the core of the body to represent that he cant live

without the memory of his father. However, the action fades away but the memories will last

forever in his heart as the poet use the word buried. Thus, the poet use the word he grows

in me to illustrate his fathers memories follow him everywhere he goes. In addition, Eating

together, also establish the warm moment in the poet mind holding it between her fingers /

deftly, the way my father did / weeks ago. (Share, 2003). This demonstrate that every

memories can created the image of tenderness even his father is not with him anymore.

Hence, this three poem build for express his emotion of missing and release on someone

which created the theme called tenderness and care.

Secondly, Li-Young Lee use the word in the poem to become a symbol of love and

death. He demonstrate his ides by using different words in different poem by having the same

meaning in each verses. The word clock that come from Pillow is a symbol of hope, Night

is the shadow of my fathers hands / setting the clock for resurrection (Dimitrov, n.d.).

Everyone have hope just depend on when that hope will exist. In this case, Li-Young Lee

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express that his hope is impossible to return same as a clock which mean that we cant make

the hands clock go back to the same place that memories had happen between him and his

father. In addition, the word wedding feast that come from Little father can define as a

happiness. As he wrote in the poem Sometimes I see past them / to the tables spread for a

wedding feast. (Share, 2003). This represent that when the guest who come to the funeral

will not become that sad as the poet whose father died. So, this represent all the guest that

they doesnt have any effect and fulfil with happiness like they went to the wedding party.

However, Li-Young Lee still miss his dad and can not forget the memories that his dad just

gave to him all of his life. Hence, he created that word lunch to symbolise as the

memorable moment that poet had spend time with his dad. According to Eating together

poem, We shall eat it with rice for lunch, / .. (Share, 2003). As lunch is the time that

gather all the family member to come and join the conversation. So, this become a best image

memory that he cant get rid of it and these suddenly become a memories of the poet.

Thusly, writing many great poem are easy but, make all the poem become image and

bring the reader to imagination along with poet is hard. However, Li-Young Lee is the one

who able to generate his poem as an image. From his poem Pillow, And night begins when

my mother's fingers / let go of the thread (Dimitrov, n.d.). This create the image of his

mother that she cant hold back and stop death condition. So, she need to let her husband go

and leave all the memories with her. Nevertheless, in referring to poem Little father, the

birds / clean and comb him every morning / and pull the blanket up to his chin / every

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night. (Share, 2003). This memories start to appear during reading which it build the image

of the normal routine of his son that he always done for his dad every morning. But now, it

just become a dust that no one can touch it again because it slowly stay up and disappear

above the air. Therefore, even if he can see or feel the dust and want to bring it back like the

past, he cant. According to the last stanza, Li- Young Lee use Eating together quote, Then

he lay down / to sleep like a snow-covered road / winding through pines older than him, /

without any traveler, and lonely for no one. (Share, 2003), to establish the image that when

person soul away, the important things that they had created start to lost and covered by the

obscure view.

All in all, Li-Young Lee use his poem to draws on his memories of the refugee

experience and stories recounted by family members. Pillow, Little father, and Eating

together are the example that poet use to express his care and feeling toward his dad through

theme, symbol and give out imagery. Hence, all three poem are simplicity for reader to see

ordinary scenes in a different ways. All things that he had mention were not created it up, as a

replacement its all true. Therefore, Li-Young Lee is a good poet that we should praise and

esteem him.

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 References:

1. Dimitrov, A. (n.d.). Pillow. Retrieved from https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/

pillow

2. Sitar, J. (2003). Eating Together. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43015

3. Sitar, J. (2003). Little Father. Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

poems-and-poets/poems/detail/46472

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 Poem By Li-Young Lee

Pillow -

There's nothing I can't find under there.

Voices in the trees, the missing pages
of the sea.

Everything but sleep.

And night is a river bridging

the speaking and listening banks,

a fortress, undefended and inviolate.

There's nothing that won't fit under it:

fountains clogged with mud and leaves,
the houses of my childhood.

And night begins when my mother's fingers

let go of the thread
they've been tying and untying
to touch toward our fraying story's hem.

Night is the shadow of my father's hands

setting the clock for resurrection.

Or is it the clock unraveled, the numbers flown?

There's nothing that hasn't found home there:

discarded wings, lost shoes, a broken alphabet.
Everything but sleep. And night begins

with the first beheading

of the jasmine, its captive fragrance
rid at last of burial clothes.

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Little Father -

I buried my father
in the sky.
Since then, the birds
clean and comb him every morning
and pull the blanket up to his chin
every night.

I buried my father underground.

Since then, my ladders
only climb down,
and all the earth has become a house
whose rooms are the hours, whose doors
stand open at evening, receiving
guest after guest.
Sometimes I see past them
to the tables spread for a wedding feast.

I buried my father in my heart.

Now he grows in me, my strange son,
my little root who wont drink milk,
little pale foot sunk in unheard-of night,
little clock spring newly wet
in the fire, little grape, parent to the future
wine, a son the fruit of his own son,
little father I ransom with my life.

Eating together -

In the steamer is the trout deftly, the way my father did

seasoned with slivers of ginger,
two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil.
We shall eat it with rice for lunch,
brothers, sister, my mother who will
taste the sweetest meat of the head,
holding it between her fingers
weeks ago. Then he lay down
to sleep like a snow-covered road
winding through pines older than him,
without any travelers, and lonely for no one.

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