In 1957, Li-Young Lee was born in Djakarta, Indonesia. His parents derived from powerful Chinese families. His great grandfather was the first president of the Republic of China. His father was the personal physician to Communist leader, Mao Tse-Tung. About half a year later, his family relocated to Indonesia where his father helped found Gamaliel University, a Christian college. There he taught English and philosophy. Soon after, due to Anti-Chinese attitudes, his father was held in a prison for a year. When he was released in 1959, their family went on a five-year journey; moving through Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, and finally settling in the United States in 1964. When they reached Pennsylvania, his father became a Presbyterian minister. Lee’s father tried to influence him to enjoy literature; however, he never became serious about it until he was enrolled in college. He attended, “Universities of Pittsburgh and Arizona, and the State University of New York at Brockport. He has taught at several universities, including Northwestern and the University of Iowa” (Poets.org, 2014). Currently, Lee lives in Chicago with his wife and two children.
As someone reads his writings, you can visualize his memories about his family and home life. He is able to take the essence of love or sadness from a particular moment in his past and pass it to the reader. One instance would be when I read the poem, From Blossoms. As I read it, it felt as if it was a moment when he was a boy. During summer time, he and another person strolled down a road until they noticed a Peaches stand. Rushing over, he tells about how fruitful the farmer’s trees were, motioning to how many peaches there were to choose from. He describes the moment you bite into a luscious...
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...’s work, I feel nostalgic. I am transported to a moment in his past. It was interesting to me in that it reminds me of my past. The peaches, his father’s love, and Lee’s forgetfulness all remind me of myself. He, in a sense, makes me want to appreciate what I remember even more because of his poems. Out of his works, I haven’t found a poem I do not like. His poems never rhymed, they were always free verse. Even though they did not have a rhythm, it read like a story in my head. It is not hard to see his happiness or his pain when you read one of his poems.
Works Cited
"Lee, Li-Young." Postcolonial Studies Emory. N.p., 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"Li-Young Lee." BOA Authors & Poets. N.p., 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"Li-Young Lee." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
"Li-Young Lee." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
...he imagery of the more intensely-felt passages in the middle of the poem. Perhaps the poet is like someone at their journey's end, `all passion spent', recollecting in tranquillity some intimations of mortality?
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts by telling the reader the place, time and activity he is doing, stating that he saw something that he will always remember. His description of his view is explained through simile for example “Ripe apples were caught like red fish in the nets of their branches” (Updike), captivating the reader’s attention
Li-Young Lee’s poem, A Story, explores a complex relationship between a father and his five year old son. Although the poem’s purpose is to elaborate on the complexity of the relationship and the father’s fear of disappointing his son, the main conflict that the father is faced with is not uncommon among parents. Lee is able to successfully portray the father’s paranoia and son’s innocence through the use of alternating point of view, stanza structure, and Biblical symbolism.
Poetry is a way for authors to express their feelings on life, whether it be current events, past memories, or just abstract thought. Some poets write stories using poetry, while others write short simple imaginative journeys. One poet, Rita Dove, uses her poetry to reflect upon her past actions as a child. Her poems create extraordinary sensory experiences in the reader, mostly being visualizations that the reader can image. Both “Geometry” and “Grape Sherbet”, by Rita Dove, are similar in that they express a commonality between Dove’s childhood, and experiences people have in the present day by using common poetic devices like imagery, symbolism, and personification.
The poet Li-young Lee, Asian American, depicts the struggle of accepting the cycle of life and expressing the challenges for the love of his culture and how Asian American see their place with earthly things and adjusting to the American society. His past life endured discrimination, and acceptance, in which he describes beautifully, mystical and spiritually with to the words in his writing (Bradley, 2014).
The poems facilitate the investigation of human experience through illustrating life’s transience and the longevity of memory.
Billy Collins is one of the most credited poets of this century and last. He is a man of many talents, most recognized though by his provocative and riveting poetry. As John McEnroe was to the sport of tennis, Billy Collins has done the same for the world of poetry. Collin’s rejected the old ways of poetry, created his own form, broke all the rules, and still retains the love and respect of the poet community. Collins has received the title of Poet Laureate of the United States twice and also has received countless awards and acknowledgements. He has achieved this through a style of poetry that is not over-interpreted and hard to understand to most, but that of the complete opposite, his poetry is hospitable and playful.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
During the Tang Dynasty, Li Po and Tu Fu have reigned the literary world with their poetry. Their writing techniques and themes in their poetry allow them to stand out amongst other poets at the time. With the unique aspects and images these poets write about, they distinguish the similarities between themselves and contain different intensities in their poetry. While Li Po has a more relaxed tone to his poetry, Tu Fu deals with the serious aspects of life such as war, poverty, and suffering.
The phrasing of this poem can be analyzed on many levels. Holistically, the poem moves the father through three types of emotions. More specifically, the first lines of the poem depict the father s deep sadness toward the death of his son. The line Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy creates a mental picture in my mind (Line 1). I see the father standing over the coffin in his blackest of outfits with sunglasses shading his eyes from the sun because even the sun is too bright for his day of mourning. The most beautiful scarlet rose from his garden is gripped tightly in his right hand as tears cascade down his face and strike the earth with a splash that echoes like a scream in a cave, piercing the ears of those gathered there to mourn the death of his son.
...s the theme of family. For example, when you truly love someone in your family, you make sure that you show them you truly love them by not only giving them a hug but also telling them that you love them. I can relate to this situation because whenever I notice that my mom is feeling down, I make sure that I tell her that I love her and she is the best mom in the world. Another theme that is present in this poem that I can relate with my life is the theme of mortality. For example, the man is obsessed with not only how but also why Annabel died. I can relate to the man in this situation because after my mom’s dog passed away about nine or ten years ago I was wondering for the longest time why she had to pass away. She wasn’t always the nicest dog, but I still loved her anyways. This poem celebrates the child-like emotions with the ideals of the Romantic era.
He uses powerful imagery and onomatopoeia to achieve the desired effects that make the poem more realistic. All this combined together produces effective thought provoking ideas and with each read, I gradually get an improved understanding and appreciation of the poem.
The Author Li young Lee wanted to speak about the old and new, from when he lived in his old home, to living in America. His Poem “Eating Together” he wrote about this heritage and the traditions of living. Cathy Song was another author who write about the Asian American culture. She had also written through her poems the diversity between the two cultures she had lived in. In the poem “Lost Sister” she explain how a girl looses who she is when she moves and lives in America, this lost sister finds herself feeling alone among people she does not know. Cathy Song is able to write about her past and other peoples experience because of her
“I sometimes speak from the last thing that happened to me. I got asked today if I think up poems. Do I think them up? How do I get the right one? Well, it is the hardest thing in the world to tell. But I don’t think up poems. I pick up a lot of things I thought of to make a poem; that is a lot of scattered thoughts through the days that are handy for the poem-that’s about all. That’s where the thinking comes in.”
His poetry just like his beliefs relays a sense of feeling towards aspects of spiritual understanding.