in “Persimmons” with other poems in Rose, explaining their connection to
themes related to language and expression, generational perspectives, loss, and
empowerment.
- In Rose flowers serve as symbols for relationships and for emotional, spiritual,
physical, and cultural conditions. Students might want to explore the different
flowers used throughout the collection and explicate the role that these plants
play in the individual poems. They could also explore what purpose the use of
flowers serves for the collection as a whole. In this vein, students might also be
interested in exploring how the use of flowers or nature as significant symbols
connects Lee to the poetic heritage of Romanticism and the image-driven
Modernist poets. Research regarding poets including the Romantics William
Wordsworth and John Keats might be helpful as well as research into the work
of Modernist poets such as H.D. and Moore.
- Rose could be viewed as a historical artifact of immigration or an act of politi-
cal activism calling for the embrace of immigrants and multicultural persons
in the United States. Students might be interested in contemplating the
implications of writing from the perspective of an immigrant and express-
ing the social or emotional conflicts that arise from immigration. Starting
points for this topic include essays by Slowik and Zhou, and Lee’s interviews
with Chang and with Moyers (the latter included in Ingersoll, pp. 20–43).
Students might also be interested in tracing the different ways Lee depicts
immigrant identity throughout his career. Notable poems from other col-
lections to be compared to those in Rose include “For a New Citizen of the
United States” and the title poem from The City in Which I Love You and
“Self-Help for Fellow Refugees” and “Immigrant Blues” from Behind My
Eyes. The film The Power of the Word: Voices of Memory Featuring Li-Young
Lee may also provide fruitful insights.
- Stern observes the importance of Lee’s father in the poems, writing: “I think,
in fact, that understanding, even accepting, the father is the critical event, the
critical ‘myth’ in Lee’s poetry.” Lee’s poems function on both private and public
levels. David Baker insists that “Lee’s finest achievement as a poet, in fact, is
his persistent blending of cultural politics and personal desire, a doubled sub-
ject that seems to me essential to American poetry.” Students might explore
the continuity between personal moments and larger cultural, social, psycho-
logical, and historical contexts. How do poems that are encapsulated within a
specific personal history speak to the experiences of others? Suggested poems
include “Dreaming of Hair,” “Persimmons,” “The Gift,” “I Ask My Mother To
Sing,” and “Rain Diary.”
- Some might consider Lee a religious or Christian poet, especially as he was
raised in a Christian home and his father was a minister. He also discusses issues
related to spiritual belief and practice throughout his body of work. Students
interested in this topic might review Lee’s interview with Reamy Jansen or
Ingersoll’s introduction (both in Ingersoll, pp. 74–85 and 9–15, respectively).
Alternatively, students might also be interested in comparing the different por-
trayals of Christianity and religion in general across Lee’s first three books, Rose,
Li-Young Lee 27
