Thursday, March 25, 2010
Early in the Morning by Li Young Lee
I personally believe that Lee was trying to show the beauty in "normal routine." Normally when something is done repeatedly, it's eventually perfected. Idealistically, the term "perfect" has the meaning of something being amazing and flawless. The husband in the poem loved the mother and liked how she kept her hair neat and perfect. It was so straight and soft. Lee said, "my mother glides an ivory comb through her hair," and the word glide has a soft swift sound to it. The poem also mentions their longevity through the parents togetherness. The parents have been together for 50 years and the husband still likes what the mother does to her hair, as if it was the first time. That's the significance of the poem because it exemplifies love and the love that they have for one another over a long period of time. In addition, I believe the last stanza of the poem is saying that although the mother is so "routine" when it comes to her ponytail, she lets her hair down sometimes. In this case, when she lets her hair down, it becomes almost like an extra treat for the father's sight to see. That "extra treat" is like spunk added to a relationship, although it's already good, there are those times that are better than others.
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You're right about the beaury of the everyday, and love a function of these simple daily rituals, though there is something more here, too, something mysterious, sexual, a bit fearful--the comb glides through, but the hair is also described as "heavy and black"; the comb is ivory (white bone); and "winter vegetables" are noted, contrasting to the water simmering, over a "low flame"--so there's quite a bit under the surface of this imagery--the sense of age, mortality; the closeness of new life--birds, vegetables, breakfast, v winter and blackness--the curtian at the end, which is simultaneously a kind of closure, but also a sheltering of the sexual intimacy (the low flame) to follow. Then there's the tightness of the "bun" (not a ponytail), and how easily it gives way...; that tension between reserve an passion that characterizes the relationship.
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