Lee Little Father

Little Father by Li-Young Lee Little Father by Li-Young Lee focuses on the concept of a lost of a loved one and coping with it. Throughout the poem, repetition, symbolism, and word choice are used to demonstrate the theme that despite losing a loved one, they’ll always stay with you within your heart. In the first two stanzas, the speaker mentions burying their “...father in the sky...underground” (1-2, 7). Heaven is often referred to as the sky, as it is believed that the afterworld lies in the sky. It is a paradise for the dead, and the souls are cherished there such as the speaker’s father as “the birds clean and comb him every morning and pull the blanket up to his chin every night” (4-6). ‘Burying his father in Heaven’ represents the

The speaker’s personal emotions emphasizes the poem’s theme since although his father is no longer with him in this world, the memory of his father will always live in his heart. Throughout the poem, Lee uses the sky, underground, and the heart to symbolize imagination, reality, and memory—emphasizing the poem’s theme of the remembrance of a loved one. Lee also uses repetition to convey the meaning of Little Father. The speaker repeatedly mentions “I buried my father…Since then…” This repetition displays the similarity in concepts, however the contrast in ideas. The first stanza focuses on the spiritual location of the speaker’s father, the second stanza focuses on the physical location of the father, and the third stanza focuses on the mental location of the speaker’s father. This allows the reader to understand and identify the shift in ideas between each stanza, and to connect these different ideas together—leading to the message of despite where the loved one is (spiritually or physically), they’ll always be in your heart. The usage of word choice also enables the reader to read in first person—the voice of the speaker. Reading in the voice of the speaker allows the reader to see in the perspective of the speaker and to connect with the speaker—understand