A Gift Poem

A Gift Poem - The Gift" by Li-Young Lee is an effective contemporary song about the influence of a father's voice and attitude towards his son. Li-Young Lee is an Indonesian poet whose family originates from China. Li-Young Lee is one of the most popular and respected American poets today.

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A Gift Poem

His narrative poem 'Dar' is written in the first person, usually with the poet himself, describing an experience he had with the poet's late father. The poem was first published in Rosen (1986), Li-Young Lee's first poetry collection. Memory, heritage, culture and relationships between father and son often appear in the poet's work.

Examining his poetry for the Library Journal, a reviewer noted that Lee interweaves memories of childhood events with dreams, myths, his father's sermons (which he vaguely remembers), and everyday memories such as the seeds in his father's coat pocket or the coconut in his Hair Oil

Indonesian nannies. For the son, the mighty father figure embodied cruelty, Christian goodness, inspiration, scarcity, devotion and insight. Li-Young Lee's 'The Gift' is a thoughtful song inspired by a childhood memory that is both painful and comforting. In the opening lines of the poem, the speaker (usually assumed to be Li-Young Lee himself) begins by describing how his father distracted him from removing a metal shard from his palm.

Poem Meaning

Despite the toddler's explanation of the coming pain, the whole experience was quite easy and relaxing. The speaker remembers his father's voice "well / dark waters, prayer" the most. In the second part of the text, the speaker continues to describe how the scene would look from an outside perspective.

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He reveals to the reader that now, as a grown man, he helps his wife "shave her skin so carefully that she 'feels no pain.' The memory of this simple childhood experience came flooding back to him, prompting him to reflect on his childhood actions and the emotions that experience evoked.

The poem ends with the speaker describing how he kissed his father. The poem 'Gift' captures the speaker's specific memory of a father who showed kindness, patience and tenderness as he removed a splinter from his son's hand. The poem suggests that this act of kindness and other lessons the speaker learned from his father was a "gift" left to him by his father.

Now he can take the same attitude/patience when dealing with people he loves. In this poem, the poet uses some examples of figurative language. Among others: Metaphor: A comparison between two things that does not use "like" or "like". The image suggests one: an interesting description that uses language that stimulates the readers' senses.

Figurative Language

These examples should prompt the reader to smell, hear, see, or feel the same things as the speaker. In the first stanza of Daril, the speaker begins to take the reader back to a memory from his youth. He takes the reader to the center of the event (a literary device known as in medias res) where the "metal skin" stuck to his poem and was removed by his father in a cool and disciplined manner.

He remembers his father "reciting the story under his breath." Seeing her "beautiful face and not a sheet" the young speaker was completely confused by his father's fathers to remove the "iron silver" which he thought would "kill" the young speaker. This is an example of the comfort a parent can bring to a child's life.

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It also shows how powerful simple everyday memories are, even years later. That last line is a hyperbolic statement. From the child's point of view, any painful or unusual event is highlighted. In this example, the speaker describes how, as a young boy, he believed that a piece of metal could destroy his life.

While the speaker remembers the event very clearly, he does not remember the story his father told him. He remembered his father's voice more than anything. These are the emotions of the moment and the way his father soothed him with his voice as "dark water" and as "prayer".

Stanza Two

This is an example of a metaphor. The poet compares the effect of his father's voice on him to a "hole of dark water," without using the words "as" or "as." In these lines, the poet also shows his skill with imagery. Although no one has experienced exactly the same event in their youth with the same affective characteristics, the poet's affective language gives readers the sense that they have.

It is easy to imagine the calm and soothing voice of a father and its effect on a small and anxious child. In the last lines of the stanza, the poet uses a good example of juxtaposition. He also uses another metaphor. He compares his father's hands to "two measures of tenderness" and "the flame of discipline."

These lines refer to the speaker's more complicated relationship with his father (suggesting that moments of comfort may be few and far between). The father used his hands to calm and discipline the child. The same hands that were resting lovingly on his face were also raised above his head (a metaphor for a father who administered corporal punishment when his son thought it was necessary).

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Transition between the second and third stanzas. Here the poet begins to use the second-person perspective and addresses his lines "to you". It is not clear whether they have a specific audience in mind (it could be any reader or just one person), but by using "you" the readers are included in the narrative of the text.

Stanza Three

Ask them to imagine the speaker and his father entering the scene. The speaker suggests that you would think you saw a man pushing something into a boy's hand. It's an unusual line that has a lot of meaning when viewed together with the piece.

The word "planting" means growth and creation. It is closely related to the title of the song: "The Gift". At that moment, the father gives something to his son. That is, self-discipline and self-control in difficult situations. Through her entertainment, she teaches her son how to deal with the times when life seems out of control, painful and stressful.

The effect of the "gift" given to him by his father is shown by the speaker in the following lines. It describes how if "you" were to follow this young lad from youth to adulthood, the natural course of events would bring you "here". At this moment, the speaker is leaning on the "right" of his wife.

It performs a similar task as described in the previous stanzas. He uses the patience he learned from his father to help his wife through a similar time. In the fourth stanza, the poet again addresses the words to a specific audience, the reader. He asks those watching the scene, from afar and from a metaphorical perspective, to "look" and "see" as he cuts the skin and leaves the skin outside, "making sure he doesn't feel the pain."

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