Li-Young Lee
Thesis: The writer uses a series of lush sensual series of contrasts to highlight his personal sense of loneliness and isolation indicating that emotions are more valuable than physical enjoyment.
Discussion:
The poem starts in the autumn garden as the writer is pulling the last young onions from the cold brown ground. The closing day flames and he glimpses a cardinal. After pulling the onions, he washes them and drinks the water flowing out from the icy metal spigot. This imagery provides a series of acute contrasts between many of the poem’s elements. Young onions have bright green tops that serve ...
