Winnie Chang
ENG 120
November 14, 2014
Analytical Essay
Sound and Imagery in “Early in the Morning” by Li-Young Lee
Li-Young Lee was born in Indonesia to Chinese parents, who fled communist China as political exiles. The family eventually relocated to the United States, where Lee began to formally write poetry. Lee often draws from personal memories and uses narrative in his poems, frequently touching on themes of family, childhood, and memory, intertwined with Chinese culture. (Poetry Foundation) Peggy Kaganoff, a Publishers Weekly reviewer, describes Lee’s imagery as “economical yet fluid, and his language is often startling for its brave honesty”. (Poetry Foundation) “Early in the Morning”, published in Lee’s first book of poems, Rose (1986), is a reflection of childhood, as the speaker observes his mother’s daily ritual of making breakfast and doing her hair. Through the depiction of everyday routines – their tangibility evoked by sound and diction – Lee builds a quiet, nuanced understanding of love.
Sound and diction shape help to reader’s experience of a poem. Especially given the conciseness of “Early in the Morning”, the use of two craft elements is especially influential. At once, Lee establishes a feeling of comfort and familiarity in the first stanza with his diction. Lee writes the first line, “While the long grain is softening”, in passive voice, highlighting the verb “softening”. This helps to evoke a sense of gentleness and safety in the reader. The sounds
As evident by the title of this poem, imagery is a strong technique used in this poem as the author describes with great detail his journey through a sawmill town. This technique is used most in the following phrases: “...down a tilting road, into a distant valley.” And “The sawmill towns, bare hamlets built of boards with perhaps a store”. This has the effect of creating an image in the reader’s mind and making the poem even more real.
In the poem, A Story, by Li-Young Lee, a father struggles with the thought of his son growing older. The poem clearly shows fears of how he is afraid of their complex relationship. Lee uses many literary devices to convey this complex relationship of the father and the son through point of view and structure.
The relationship between father and son changes over time, and molds along with the people in encapsulates. As in real life, the father and son who inhabit Li-Young Lee’s poem “A Story” experience sudden changes within their relationship as the time passes on. The son’s cries for a story that slowly change into adult conversations throughout the poem indicate that with maturity and age comes both understanding and hostility.
In the poem “A Story” by Li-Young Lee, the poet discusses the complex relationship between father and son through the son’s constant wanting for his father to tell him a story. Through the use of differing point of view and meaningful structure, the poet tries to highlight the idea of relationships changing as they mature and with time.
The author uses diction throughout the poem to help the reader better understand how the speaker is feeling. For example, "It was hot. A size too large, my wool winter suit scratched" (lines 1-2) shows
Li-Young Lee in this poem concentrated on memories that provide both joy and sadness as they allow us to recall the happy or sad moments with our loved ones as we prepare ourselves for future. Lee examine his emotional relationship to his father in the past with hoping that remembering all those moments will help him integrate those memories with his father into his own life. “Windblown, a rain-soaked bough shakes, showering the man and the boy. They shiver in delight, and the father lifts from his son’s cheek one green leaf fallen like a kiss.” Lee uses images in this poem to show the readers his idea about the memory rather than telling all at once because he thought this way has more emotional impact because
Individuals have been brought to believe that the only way to end their griefs and sorrows is to end their lives. Though suicide has become a detriment and devastating issue, it has not been presumed to be an effortless or painless act. In society, people become their own threats as they tend to isolate themselves from others which often increases this devastating issue of unsubstantial pain and long-suffering. In the poem, Tuesday 9:00 am, by Denver Butson, individuals are unable to speak and move because of their own specific problems which are burdening them and their ability to help others. The poet is enforcing the idea that individuals need to open up their eyes and be aware of others relentless despair and their struggle to reach out.
The poem “Persimmons” by Li- Young Lee tells the story about the poet’s life, flashing back to his early childhood and adulthood having trouble adjusting to the English language. English was not his first language, which caused more confusion than understanding of new words. Persimmons shows how words can mean different things, but also how when someone truly loves you, some opposite words can have the same meaning. The poet is bashed by his sixth-grade teacher Mrs. Walker, but with the help of his mother and father he can overcome English boundaries and gain knowledge through their love.
The poem progresses from mourning of the deceased to praising of his achievements and fate to die before his glory withered. Therefore, the tone shifts from somber and quiet to upbeat and positive. Such shift of tone is achieved by Housman’s use of sounds. In first two stanzas, Housman describes the funeral procession as he remembers the time when the young athlete was proudly brought home after he won a race. Then, he solaces the mourners by reminding them it is better that the athlete “slip betimes away from fields where glory does not stay” (lines 9 and 10) because the laurel “withers quicker than the rose” (line 12). The soft “s” sound stands out especially in second and third stanza and it creates a sense of calm and quiet tone and evokes an image of townspeople mourning the death of their “hero”; Consonance of “s” sounds is present in words “shoulder, set, threshold, townsman, stiller, smart, slip, betimes, fields, does, stay, grows, withers, and rose.” In addition to consonance, soft sound alliteration in “road all runners” (line 5) helps to create a quiet tone. As the poem progresses into praising of the young athlete in stanzas four through seven, the consonance of hard “c”, “t”, and “f” sound become prominent. Readers can immediately detect
The poem “A Story” by Li young Lee tells of a young child asking his father for story. The boy simply wants a story that he has never heard, his father is bombarded with panic as he seems to think he is disappointing his son. Through analysis of structure, points of view and metaphors this seemingly simple story is transformed into a deep meaningful poem about a complex relationship between a father and son.
The vivid imagery incorporated throughout “The Gift” is characteristic of Li-Young Lee’s writing style. Li-Young Lee specifically portrays vivid imagery through the use of metaphors. For instance, in the poem, Li-Young Lee states that his father’s voice was “a well of dark water, a prayer.” This metaphor used by Li-Young Lee allows readers to vividly picture the type of man his father was. By comparing his father’s voice to “dark water,” the poet illustrates the gentleness of his father. This is because the sound of water tends to bring peace and comfort to those who listen. Similar to water, the sound of his father’s voice radiated with
Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.
The Poem “Introduction to Poetry” is by Billy Collins, an English poet, and it is about how teachers often force students to over-analyze poetry and to try decipher every possible meaning portrayed throughout the poem rather than allowing the students to form their own interpretation of the poem based on their own experiences.
Poetry is a reduced dialect that communicates complex emotions. To comprehend the numerous implications of a ballad, perusers must analyze its words and expressing from the points of view of beat, sound, pictures, clear importance, and suggested meaning. Perusers then need to sort out reactions to the verse into a consistent, point-by-point clarification. Poetry utilizes structures and traditions to propose differential translation to words, or to summon emotive reactions. Gadgets, for example, sound similarity, similar sounding word usage, likeness in sound and cadence are at times used to accomplish musical or incantatory impacts.
Imagery is the strongest supporter of the theme. A description of the sea in its states of calmness and roughness are depicted. Sight and sound help intensify other images. The poems’ strongest feelings are usually expressed by their imagery, though rhythm is also used to convey meaning. Arnold uses the first stanza of the poem to create visual, auditory, and olfactory images that will allow the reader to picture the sea of which the speaker is viewing. Through the use of several poetic Figures of speech, sounds, and irony of words are also used. Line one; “The Sea is calm tonight”(1) has a gentle rhythm that can be compared to the “ebb and flow” (17) of the sea. With this description one can imagine a beautiful beach with water lapping upon the shore. The second line also gives the image of a calm sea. In the opening stanzas words such as “gleams”(4) and “glimmering”(5) are used, giving a sense of light. In contrast the ending stanzas use words such as