Poem Analysis: Eating Together By Li-Young Lee

“Then he lay down / to sleep like a snow-covered road / winding through pines older than him, / without any travelers, and lonely for no one” (Lee, lines 9-12). The road to death is one that unifies all living beings. Life and death are two concepts that every individual shares- everyone lives and everyone dies. Despite these ideas being so universally experienced, death is still a concept that many fear. Life after loss is still a difficult road to manage no matter how prepared someone believes they are for it. Everyone grieves differently, and “Eating Together” By Li-Young Lee is a poem that explores familial relations after the death of a kin. This poem details a family eating lunch together in a traditional manner, and then explains the sadness experienced by doing an activity as a family without the

The diction is very light and simple. In lines 5 and 6, it says “...my mother who will / taste the sweetest meat of the head” (Lee). The description of the meat being “the sweetest” is a detail that allows the reader to have a very positive and happy image of this situation in their head, as opposed to just saying she tasted the meat. This intentional use of diction allows for a soft image that starkly contrasts the heavy topic of death. Another example of this can be seen in lines 9-12, “ Then he lay down / to sleep like a snow-covered road… / / …without any travelers…” (Lee). The image produced when comparing sleep to a “snow covered road” is one that is very calm and serene. When reading that, a thought of peaceful, undisturbed snow is created, and that, again, aids in the contrast between the life of the situation and the death being described. These are two examples of how Lee uses tone and diction to explore familial dynamics regarding