"I Ask My Mother to Sing" by Li-Young Lee

The poem I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee is about his grandmother and mother singing a song and how it makes Li-Young Lee feel. This poem really shows how powerful emotion is portrayed through singing or a song. Most poems also have a rhythmic theme to them that make some lines or all lines rhyme, but this poem doesn't rhyme this poem sounds more like a regular story. This poem is a song sung by his mother and grandmother to the speaker and it shows how it affects him.

When people sing, they do it with emotion because that is the whole point of singing is to portray a message that someone is trying to explain to other people and they can do it however they want while singing. The speaker imagines the memories in the song like he has experienced them before because of how real they feel while being sung to him. He imagines the places they mention and sees them vividly in his mind, although he has never been to China, the homeland of his family, which his mother and grandmother remember in their song.

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The speaker wouldn't have been moved so much by the song if there wasn't as much emotion poured into it by his relatives who sang it. Emotions in songs can also be felt by the person singing or in this case his relatives because they start crying towards the end of the song, but they don't let their emotions stop them from finishing the song.

References

• from Hero and Leander: "It lies not in our power… | Poetry Foundation
• I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee - Poems | Academy of American Poets
• PoetrySoup - "I Ask My Mother to Sing" by Li-Young Lee
• Quote by R. Martinez: “Enjoy the silence, because one wrong action cos...”