Gender Roles

"My Father's Sadness" by Shirley Geok-lin Lim

My father's sadness appears in my dreams.

His young body is dying of responsibility.
So many men and women march out of his mouth
each time he opens his heart for fullness,
he is shot down; so many men and women
like dragons' teeth rising in the instance
of his lifetime. He is an oriental. He claims
paternity. But in his dreams he is a young body
with only his life before him.

My father's sadness masks my face. It is hard

to see through his tears, his desires drum in my chest.
I tense like a young man with a full moon
and no woman in sight. My father broke
with each child, finer and finer, the clay
of his body crumbling to a drizzle of silicone
in the hour-glass. How hard it is
to be a father, a bull under the axle,
the mangrove netted by lianas, the host
perishing of its lavishness.

Poetic Devices:

 Alliteration
 Consonance
 Enjambment
 Caesura
Gender Roles

Reading Tasks:

1. Number the lines of the poem.

2. a) Annotate: Explain the literal meaning of line 2.

b) Annotate: Explain the figurative meaning of line 2.

3. Annotate: Name the device used in 6; identify the reference/meaning

4. a) Annotate: Explain the literal meaning of lines 13-16.

b) Annotate: Explain the figurative meaning of lines 13-16.

5. Annotate: What do lines 15-16 suggest?

6. a) Annotate: Name the device is line 17

b) Annotate: Explain the figurative meaning

7. a) Annotate: Find and identify the 3 metaphors in lines 17-20

b) Annotate: Explain the figurative meaning of each

8. Annotate: Find and identify the 2 similes in the poem

b) Annotate: Explain the figurative meaning of the second

Reread the lines indicated with each question below. Answer each question, citing text evidence.

1. What is the poet’s real message? Use text from line 2 to support your answer.

2. What do you think the “dragon’s teeth” in line 6 suggest?

3. Lines 13–16: How might the children each contribute a bit more to the father’s “breaking”?

4. Discuss the image of the father the speaker sees in dreams (lines 3-9).

5. What other images have the feeling of a dream—Explain, making sure you cite words and phrases as
evidence (and include the line numbers in parentheses)

6. What ideas about fatherhood are developed in stanza 1? How does the poet use figurative language
to develop this?

7. a) Find lines that show what the father feels like inside
b) Find lines that show what the father has become