A Hymn To Childhood By Li-Young Lee

Poetry is a way to describe events that take place in history. This is exactly what Li-Young Lee did in his poem, A Hymn to Childhood. Lee’s poem focused on the view of a young child that was living amongst the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The narrator, who could be debated to be the child or Lee, starts the poem off by describing a typical childhood fears that most adults may think is childish such as being afraid of the ladder in the attic. However, by the second stanza, the narrator gets into a more terrifying situation and it is described through the eye of the child. It is a reference to the soldiers reinforcing the new laws. The narrator describes the fear that the child went through, beyond the harsh pain of a typical child would go

through. All of these events that the child faced are given some ray of hope in the last two stanzas, where the child has the beliefs of a better tomorrow and an innocent hope that provides the child a sense of security in a dark time.
Lee uses variety of literary elements and techniques in order to enhance his work of art.

His description of the young child is one of his techniques that helped the audience have a better understanding of the events in the poem and the overall era of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Also, the poem was answering the beginning question in the first line in the first stanza, “Childhood? Which childhood?” This is another technique that gives a different, more thinking process and a different sounds when reading the poem. The amount of literary elements is well known in Lee’s writing techniques. For example, in line nine, Lee uses a personification, “While loudspeakers declared a new era.” Lee might have added this personification in the poem to paint a picture in the audiences mind. This image of how the child might have interpret the soldiers, that were marching down the streets shouting out the laws of communism to the Chinese people. Not only is it a personification, but a emotional imagery of chaos that was taken place. Another example of literary elements is “Death from childhood, and both of them from dreaming.” This is a metaphor but it does not mean that the child died from dreaming, but in a sense from the situation that the child was in and what they saw. This ended up causing him to become mature quicker and had to stop being a child. In reality the effect of the Chinese Cultural Revolution on the child was that the innocence and faith was gone. Lee’s literary terms were helpful in the poem and gave it strength in a emotion sense and as an overall

theme.
The theme of “A Hymn to Childhood” is for every situation, there is always a ray of hope to embrace. Lee viewed this theme by writing about fears and worries that the child was faced with, but yet still having the child try to hold on to the ability and the stableness. This theme can be applied to other topics. For example, many immigrants from present day and back in the Industrialization era faced many hardships and obstacles in America. Even though they faced hardship they always looked for a bright side of things and were thankful they are in America instead of their original country. This theme of a ray of hope and a bright side is just kind of being optimistic like the saying when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. A quote from Becoming Human, that incorporates with this is, “from many of us, it is only when we touch rock bottom, when all seems lost, that this tiny light of hope begins to shine” (Vanier 151). Of course, the worse circumstances are, the harder it is to hold on to the hope for a better tomorrow. Always remember yesterday was the past, today is the present and tomorrow is the future is always a good way to look at life. A quote from becoming human was, “we are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time” (Vanier 163). The world changes and so do those around us. As humans hope and trying to look for a bright side is good. That being said, connecting to what Lee’s main focus was on the poem that it is possible to look at the bright side, even in the most terrible conditions. Yes, even in the darkest times there is something to be thankful for and wanting a light to say yes there is something that can change even in a terrible situation.
In the whole aspect of the child that grow up so quickly that he questions, what is childhood? Childhood is a place where you remember being at the home you were raised in and having the sense of belonging. Childhood is home. But, what is home? Where is home for the child in the poem? For those immigrant workers that movement from their country to make a better life? What is home and how is a ray of hope going to help in terrible conditions? Do you have a answer to these questions, because I sure do not. Home is what you make it and with a positive attitude a brighter day will come even in the most terrifying situations.