Preview

Li-Young Lee's Eating Alone

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1419 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Li-Young Lee's Eating Alone
Not many people enjoy eating alone. While it may be more efficient than a meal filled with gossip and conversation, it is substantially less satisfying. Especially when in public, people do not love eating by themselves. Eating alone can be especially sad when you are used to eating with someone you love. On top of that, it can be exceptionally sad if you know you will never have the chance to eat with that person ever again. Li-Young Lee’s Eating Alone is a poem about working through the grief of a lost loved one and coming to terms with your own loneliness.
In this poem, the mention of the feeling “cold” is used as symbolism to show the loneliness that the speaker is feeling. The speaker begin the poem in his garden, pulling up onions. …show more content…
Lee uses vivid imagery of a sunset to show an ending life: “What is left of the day flames / in the maples…” (3-4). Here, Lee is obviously describing a sunset. Sunsets are red, orange, and yellow, which are the same colors seen in flames. He is using this image to symbolize an end, or a death. The end of the day flames in the maples, slowly burning out with beauty and grace. A sunset fading away can be compared to someone’s mind and personality fading away as they age - perhaps the same thing happened to Lee’s father. This is a bittersweet moment, because Lee probably feels deep sorrow and frustration that his father is fading away right before his eyes and nothing can be done to stop it, but he also is still exhibiting parts of his bright …show more content…
The imagery brought forth by the environment described evokes feelings of loneliness and sorrow, and the use of bright colors in the vanishing sunset and cardinal show the fading away of a source of comfort or happiness. The speaker of the poem is lonely because his father has died, most likely too soon, due to an illness. He misses the time he spent with his father, because he was a source of excitement in a dull world, much like the rice and peas brought flavor to the plain white rice. It is a bittersweet poem, the speaker fondly remembers his father, but there is also anger present, either towards the father for abandoning him by dying, or the speaker himself for not cherishing his father while he had the chance, or more likely,
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    William Wordsworth's 'Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey'
    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages

    William Wordsworth's 'Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey'

    The poem follows the narrator’s internal monologue as he revisits a place of nostalgia that ignited his love of nature. His fears that the picturesque scene of his childhood has been idealized are quieted as he sees the place for the first time in five years, falling in love with the environment all over again. He even credits nature as “The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,/The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul/Of all my moral being” (Wordsworth LL. 109-111). His ecological thinking recharges his soul and makes him feel joyful about life once again. Nature also connects the narrator to his sister, who he sees himself in because of their love of the countryside. He acknowledges his sister the first time in the poem as his “dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch/The language of my former heart, and read/My former pleasures in the shooting lights/Of thy wild eyes” (Wordsworth LL.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Poem Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee
    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Poem Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

    During the poem, the father cannot remember a new story to tell his son. With this, the father starts to think of the upsetting idea that his son will be “packing his shirts…” and leaving. The father then yells and tries to give an explanation for his quietness. This reaction shows the father’s fear of his son leaving and losing him to time. The father’s view of his son leaving involves a plea to tell him one more story and to not leave. This contrast of the father, a man that forgot a new story and the parent in love with his child, makes for a better understanding of the deep relationship the father has with his…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    gcse economics unit 1 notes
    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    gcse economics unit 1 notes

    The relationship between father and son seems to be one of tension and distance as conveyed to the readers at first. For instance, the narrator "looks down" at his father digging, as shown in the second stanza, which can either be interpreted in two ways. One way is that the narrator is situated above his father who is in the fields digging, or another way in which the narrator looks down upon his father and sees no value in his occupation. As shown, the narrator's position is above his father because he has an education, which is reinforced from the start: the narrator is a writer, and most likely received more education than his father who is a potato farmer. The mood reinforces the distant relationship between the father and the son. The mood of the poem at first is solemn and grave. This is exemplified in the onomatopoeia; "a clean, rasping sound" In…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Tom Brennan Speech Analysis
    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Tom Brennan Speech Analysis

    The second part of the poem ‘Nightfall’ continues the story of the child forty years from ‘Barn owl’, where she had lost her innocence by shooting an owl and this had resulted in a heavy hearted guilt which was caused by her unknowing and stubborn actions. The poem represents death closing in on the father, and the limitations of time on their relationship that was never experienced before in her younger years. The father, who in the first poem is depicted as an “old no-sayer”, is now held in high esteem, he is admired and respected as an “old king”. The extended metaphor “Since there is no more to taste ripeness is plainly all. Father we pick our last fruits of the temporal.” Appeals to our senses and is now an aural metaphor, it illustrates the father’s life becoming fulfilled or ripe, it has come near to its end and the father and child will now spend or pick the last moments of the father’s life together. Over time her appreciation of her father has changed, this is shown through “Who can be what you were?” and “Old King, your marvellous journey’s done.” She has realised the valuable life her father has led and the great loss that will be felt after he is gone. The child, now a grown woman learns another lesson about death, it can be quiet and peaceful, and “Your night and day…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Violets Gwen Harwood Analysis
    • 1701 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Violets Gwen Harwood Analysis

    Figurative language and sensory imagery is used in the first stanza to create a tone of grieving, loss and nostalgia, through imagery of a dull ‘cold dusk’ and ‘frail, melancholy flowers among ashes’. The simile ‘the melting west is striped like ice-cream’ creates a sense of transition, reflecting the beginning of the persona’s introspective retreat into her thoughts. The use of an anaphora, which is the repetition of a word at the beginning of lines or sentences, in the line ‘Ambiguous light. Ambiguous sky’ also displays this transience. The symbol of ice-cream also represents childhood and a feeling of nostalgia for that time in the persona’s life. Her attempt at ‘whistling a trill’ may be an attempt to imitate her father’s whistling which is mentioned during the reflection of her memory, suggesting that she is trying to recreate her past experience but can’t properly do so. The persona’s direct speech in the line “Where’s morning gone?” is a rhetorical question that is questioning the…

    • 1701 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Poem Analysis: Lying in a Hammock
    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Poem Analysis: Lying in a Hammock

    The first line contains an image of a “bronze butterfly” sleeping on a trunk. This stagnant description of such a beautiful creature demonstrates a slowly moving life, one of which hasn’t achieved much. The trunk that the butterfly is sleeping on is colored black, representing the man’s missed opportunities to leave the farm. The next line portrays a leaf blowing down a ravine found behind an empty house. Obviously the empty house and the later heard cowbells in the distance (implying that the cows are leaving the farm) are clear images of the man’s loneliness. The speaker moves on to spot some horse manure. This dung, after being left for over a year, has dried and is turning into stones. The changing of this manure symbolizes the man’s changing into an old, lifeless man. Just as the manure does, the longer the man sits there and waits for something, the more prone he is to dry up and waste his life. Before the last line of the poem, the speaker mentions the setting sun and the evening that approaches as he lays back in his hammock. A chicken hawk, a well-known hunter, flies by the man and looks for his home, just as the man is looking for his home — or the place where he belongs. As the evening envelops the man, all of these apparently “beautiful” images (yet symbolically depressing messages) pushes the man to realize that his life has become…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Story by Li-Young Lee Poem AP Lang Prompt
    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A Story by Li-Young Lee Poem AP Lang Prompt

    This poem is written in third person narrative by an ominous voice telling the fathers thought process. The narrator begins the poem saying, “Sad is the man who is asked for a story and can’t come up with one.” This intro not only gives us a foreshadowing look onto the poem, but tells us the emotions the father feels given to us by the all knowing narrator. He tells us the dad is sad that he can’t think of a new story which shows us that he just want to please his son and in turn portraying love.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mending Wall By Robert Frost Analysis
    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Mending Wall By Robert Frost Analysis

    The male persona discovers the child’ death at the beginning of the poem which symbolises catalyses the ‘death’ of a couples marriage. This is supported by, “no, from the time when one is sick to death, … and things they understand”. The cynical tone of this phrase exemplifies the conflict of understanding as their method of expressing grief is different to one another. This is strengthened by the truncated sentences and silted dialogue, “‘Just that I see.’ ‘You don’t.’ she challenged” where the responder realises that the man only discovers the physical purpose of Amy’s misery. The confronting nature of discovery allows the female persona to challenge the male personas perspective. It is significant to note the physical structure of the poem with truncates sentences which emphasise the distance between the husband and wife whereby the husband has accepted the death of his child as he says, “little graveyard where my people are”. The negative connotation and allows the responder to realise that the male persona has discovered through a renewed perception. This also accentuates the conflict in their relationship as the male persona physically discovers instead of emotionally like Amy. Ultimately, the natural imagery of “fresh earth” suggests that nature is not always pleasant as it is the source of life and…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Blue Bowl Analysis
    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Blue Bowl Analysis

    This poem uses multiple literary devices such as metaphors and similes to explain how the family tries to overcome the loss of their pet. The simile, “Like primitives we bury the cat with its bowl.” Their cat is buried with its bowl without being put in any sort of box or coffin. Kenyon compares this action to that of the primitives. Another example of a simile is exhibited in these lines, “And a robin burbles from a dripping bush like the neighbor that means well but always says the wrong thing.” The sound of the birds chirp is felt as more of an annoyance than a welcoming sound. This is because the memory of their loss is still fresh in their mind. In addition to the similes, the poet also makes use of metaphors makes the reader even more aware of the family’s state of mind. In the line “It stormed all night; now it clears, and a robin burbles from a dripping bush.” Even though the storm has passed, the effects of the storm can still be seen in the…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost PR
    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost PR

    The author incorporates oodles of metaphors into the poem to depict the speaker’s thoughts and feelings. “Night” is an extended metaphor for the depression the speaker is inflicted with because it is the subject of the rest of the poem. The speaker has “outwalked the furthest city light” which is also a metaphor for depression and loneliness; the speaker is the cause of his solitariness because he walks into a distance himself, and the further he gets, the less light, or felicity he acquires. The metaphor for distance is also present when the speaker hears a “cry” from “far away.” The cry he heard from a horizon was not for him, and that brings about even more alienation and dejection. The “luminary clock” is a metaphor that compares a clock to the moon; the moon is not only the most distal thing in the poem to the speaker but also the radiant thing that reaches him when he is in duskiness.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis of Anne Bradstreet’s Poems
    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analysis of Anne Bradstreet’s Poems

    The tone of this poem seems to be semi joyful, and familiar in the beginning, of a mother telling about her children being born and nursed with pain and care. In line four, the speaker tells of sparing nothing in order to take care of her young; showing how deep her love is for them. At first it sounds joyful as she speaks of how her young “Mounted the trees, and learned to sing” (Bradstreet) this line gives the sense of joy that comes with learning, nature and singing. The tone then changes, while the speaker is telling of her oldest bird growing up and taking flight, she becomes very sad…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Close Reading Of Robert Frost's Poem
    • 211 Words
    • 1 Page

    A Close Reading Of Robert Frost's Poem

    Throughout this poem, the speaker is describing the world around her, which reflects her own feelings of hopelessness. The tone is pure misery, which one can see at the very beginning when the speaker opens the poem with “With blackest moss the flower-plots / Were thickly crusted, one and all:” (1.1-2). The speaker is saying that all she sees around her are flower pots without flowers, but a think black moss covers them. She continues this same tone describing a barn area that has been worn and rusted admitting, “The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:” (1.3-6). Similarly, she keeps this mood through the rest of the six stanzas. Whether she is describing outside, inside or day and night, the natural world around her shares her disposition.…

    • 211 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    John Updike
    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages

    John Updike

    Firstly, what makes the setting of this poem so memorable is the picture that he paints of an ordinary family that finds out that something is wrong with their dog. The plot was intriguing because you can vividly see the dog’s…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    how setting shapes theme
    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages

    how setting shapes theme

    This quote describes the setting’s empty landscape. This desolate setting shapes the theme of isolation in the poem. In addition, this cold and empty landscape shapes the theme of hope in the poem by being the “gloom” required in order to have hope:…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Self Analysis: "Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World" by Sherman Alexie
    • 890 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Self Analysis: "Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World" by Sherman Alexie

    I realized that this poem was about a son and a mother that was grieving over the death of his father, and her husband. They both that day had thought about the father and husband cause the son had called that day to talk to his father. That's when he found out that his mother, had made coffee for his father and had put it on the table like she does everyday for him. They both knew that he had been deceased for a year now. I know the death of a family member can be a traumatic thing for most families to every experience in their lifetime.…

    • 890 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics