Persimmons by Li-Young Lee
Select a line from “Persimmons” that you find most important to the meaning or possibly the most interesting or puzzling in the context of the entire piece. Discuss that line and explain its role in the poem and why you find it so important or interesting or puzzling. Post your response in the Comments section. Then respond to a classmate's post.
"Some things never leave a person: scent of the hair of one you love, the texture of persimmons, in your palms, the ripe weight" (lines 85-88 I find this interesting because it is true that when you love someone or something you won't be able to forget about them. There is always a symbol anywhere you go that would remind you or them or it. This shows tha he author is remind of his culure anytime he sees a permission and remembers how it tastes and feels and a token of memory.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the speaker of the poem would agree with his father when he says, "Some things never leave a person." Does the speaker feel that his culture can never truly leave him? Or does he feel like some things have already left him?
DeleteYes the speaker would agree with his father because the speaker is able to remember everthing about persimmons. Even though he may have forgotten some of his language and other parts of his culture, he wouldn't forget about the texture, taste and smell of a persimmon.
DeleteIn the poem “Persimmons” by Li-Young Lee the line I found to be most important is “These I painted blind. Some things never leave a person”. Throughout the poem the speaker was trying to let the audience know that his culture is an important part of his life. The line is being told by his father so that’s something he learned from him. He keeps that in mind and describes his culture through his memories. Lee’s Chinese culture will never leave him just like his father’s skill of painting never left him, even after becoming blind.
ReplyDelete-Michelle Quito
I agree with this because a culture can never leave anyone even if somethings may have been forgoten. There is always one special thing from your culture that you will never forget.
DeleteI agree with this because even through he strayed away from his culture for a little while, he went back to his parents cellar to try and reconnect with it.
Delete"Fight was what I did when I was frightened, Fright was what i felt when I was fighting." This adds up a lot to the poem, because of the parallelism that adds up to make it rhyme. It also has two contradicted sentences. In addition, this quote has multiple meanings and questions. Such as which one comes first fight or fright. For example if this person (the person who said the quote) got into a fight with someone is it because he was fighting fright? or he was fright that made him fight?.
ReplyDeleteI also love this line for how he plays with those two words. You bring up an interesting point that fighting and fright feed into each other to create an even more frightening situation. Do you think the speaker is fighting something in this poem? Or is he frightened of something? Maybe both?
Delete“I teach her Chinese. Crickets: chiu chiu. Dew: I’ve forgotten. Naked: I’ve forgotten. Ni, wo: you and me”. This line from the poem, Persimmons, written by Li- Young Lee is very significant because symbolizes his fading culture and its values. Later on he was rummaging in his parents cellar “looking for something I lost”. Since he did not specify exactly what he was looking for it is safe to assume that he was trying to reconnect with his culture and trying to regain a sense of what was lost. The fact that he couldn’t remember simple Chinese words to teach Donna, who is most likely, an American girl, suggests Lee’s attraction to white America. I think it was very important that he could not remember Chinese as he was getting Donna to “part her legs”. That scene was symbolic of him “selling out or trading up” his culture for the American culture.
ReplyDelete- Mobolaji A.
I think you're absolutely right. The speaker is attracted to white America, and throughout the poem he is grappling with this very tension. His experience with Donna appears a bit disjointedly in the poem, as if this experience is out of the ordinary. He promptly returns to persimmons after this stanza, which takes us back to this symbol of his culture. He ends the poem by gaining a stronger sense of his culture, and perhaps feeling less of an attraction to the dominant culture.
DeleteI totally agree that the scene is a symbol for selling out his culture for the American one. I do think he's looking for his lost culture and hopes to bring back what he use to feel. You can tell he is mixed in both Chinese and American culture. I think he tries to spread his culture to someone thats American because those are two important cultures for him.
Delete"Some things never leave a person: Scent of the hair of one you love, The texture of persimmons, In your palm, the ripe weight." This line from the poem Persimmons interested me the most, it is so important and contains so much meaning. This line has the most important role in the story because, although the speaker is talking about how he forgot some things in Chinese and found it hard learning the difference between new words, the father is pointing out to his son that things cannot be forgotten or lost and no matter how American he becomes, he will always have that Chinese culture in him. This is shown throughout the poem as the speaker shares his experience as a child and growing up. He talks about how he forgot how to say words in Chinese like naked. He also spoke about how word got him in trouble like fight and fright. The part of the poem that really proves the father's point is where we read about how one day in class his teacher brought in this "Chinese Apple" to let the whole class eat when he knew that they were eating the fruit the wrong way and that it wasn't ripe to eat. This was his own cultural knowledge that he will always have which proves that some things will truly never leave a person. This is the main reason why I found it interesting, because I too sometimes feel that I am becoming very American and I am losing my culture. But after reading this line of the poem, I came to the realization that I still keep many of my cultural knowledge that will always stay with me forever.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that author's father did a good job in reminding him who he is. There is a line where the author wondering if he lost his own culture knowledge and try to find them back, and I think he did realize there are some important pieces that remain in his mind after listening these words from his father. Same as you, sometime I felt afraid if I am losing my own culture's knowledge, and now I feel I still can keep myself as a Chinese in some way,
DeleteIn poem "Persimmons", the most important text to the meaning of the entire piece was "My mother said every persimmon has a sun inside, something golden, glowing, warm as my face" between lines 46-48. The line probably means that every single person is unique, people have their own characteristic, culture, and background just like the sun is specific stuff which provide energy to life and it was the center of solar system, but each have their golden and glowing material inside their body that cannot be forget and vanish.
ReplyDeleteThe line I chose from "Persimmons" is: “This year, in the muddy lighting of my parent's cellar, I rummage, looking for something I lost". I chose this line because the whole poem is describing the events that happened to the author Li-Young LEE: how he got confuse between two similar English words, how he was trying his best to attract a white girl, and how his familiar fruit, persimmon, was described as Chinese apple by his teacher. All these events hinder the author began to think and speak differently in the American environment. The word persimmon, which appears around the poem, is a symbol that represents the memory and culture which the author used to feel familiar with; but now, they rarely appear again in the author's life; for example: his teacher only bought one persimmon for the whole class, which is not even ripe or sweet. Through these events, the author is trying to tell us that he is losing the connection between him and the Chinese culture. The role of this line is to give an analysis to the events which had described. Also, to foreshadow what might be the events that will happen next.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I picked the same line too. That's true when you said the word persimmon rarely appear in his later life, until he found the three scrolls of art. When his father asked which is this? Bring back the familiar feeling that he had. When he replied "This is Persimmons, Father" he is bonding with his culture again.
Delete“This year, in the muddy lighting of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking for something I lost.” This quote seemed significant to me because throughout the poem the voice is talking about persimmons and other memories he has had. Then all of a sudden he mentions that he is looking for something. However he does not know exactly what he is looking for. The voice maybe looking for a way in which he can connect back to his culture or, it could be a significant thing that happened to him in the past. It could just be another persimmon, whatever it is the voice will keep on looking for it until he finds exactly what he is looking for.
ReplyDelete"This year, in the muddy lighting of my parents' cellar, I rummage, looking for something I lost." This line stands out to me the most because in the poetry "Persimmons", the author Li-Young Lee was adapted to the American culture, he forgot about his own culture. In the other stanza "He's so happy that I've come home. I ask how his eyes are..." this suggested that Lee was outside exploring America and hasn't been home for a long time. If he's home often, he wouldn't ask about his father's eyes. He finally realized the important thing that he had forgotten and left behind, later he replied "This is persimmons, Father." represents that he introduced to his culture again.
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