Essay - Li-young Lee's Poetry Thesis: on the Surface, Li-young Lee's Poem...

Li-Young Lee's Poetry

*****: On the surface, Li-Young ***** poem "Persimmons" seems simply based on ***** challenges an immigr*****t faces coming to America, or a boy learns how to grow up in a different culture from his own. These challenges are very apparent when an Asian (or any foreigner) goes about learning English. And moreover, Lee alludes to the cultural barriers that go along with inter-racial sexual relationships. But deeper than those issues by far is the linking of the persimmon fruit to rough new times and solid, sweet old times. There is symbolism in ***** ***** of youth ***** cultures banging up against age, ***** one culture slamming into unfamiliar customs in a new culture, and of one culture dying as others carry on. But the greatest strength ***** the poem is the fact of tying all of these issues together in the image of ***** persimmon. It is part of the re*****on the poet was punished and yet it ties his new culture in with his family's culture, with ***** bl*****d father and his family's ***** experiences.

Analysis: ***** is asking the reader to relate ***** ***** poetry on several levels. First of *****, Lee ***** ***** and ***** English is not the easiest thing for an Asian. Learning ***** ***** thing - especially a language - is problematic. Readers relate to *****. Also, when one ***** scolded ***** a teacher - slapped and made to stand in the corner - this k*****d of treatment is not only embarrassing ***** an immigrant, it ***** humiliating and hurtful. But e*****one can relate ***** being called out by a teacher, and so the ***** is easy to relate to on ***** level.

Beyond simply being punished in front of one's peers, and the humiliation that ***** along with that punishment, is the sense of i*****lation the poet felt at being made to st***** in the corner. In a way, that imagery carries through when one thinks about the isolation a newcomer feels when entering an alien or foreign land.

Indeed, *****re is a lot of terrific imagery in this poem, and much of it springs from the symbolism of the ***** and how to eat it properly. "Peel ***** skin tenderly, not ***** tear the meat," he writes, ***** this could easily pertain to the arrival in a new culture. One must slowly peel *****way the surface distractions of a new society, *****nd be careful ***** to "*****" into some***** too quickly. Then, ***** surface (skin) of a culture ***** ***** experienced ("chew on the *****, suck it, *****nd swallow" before eating "the meat of the fruit"). The meat will always be there but first ********** must taste the outer edges of the fruit, so that when finally arriving at the me*****, it ***** taste "so sweet, all of it, to the heart."

***** next stanza in the poem in a very real way emulates the previous stanza. ***** the sk***** of the persimmon ***** "tenderly" he asks, and *****