Poem Analysis: The Gift By Li-Young Lee

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When I first read “The Gift” by Li-Young Lee, my first thought was, “What?” The way the poem was written was so confusing at first glance, but after reading the poem over and over, I feel I have a good understanding of what Lee was trying to get across. In the first and second paragraph, the narrator talks about the memory of his father taking a splinter out of his hand. The narrator talks about his father telling him a story while he pulled the silver from his hand. When the poem said, “The flames of discipline, he raised above my head.” I thought that the father slapped the narrator after he removed the splinter, but after the class discussion I realized that the flames were above his head, meaning the father didn’t yell at him; he soothed

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