Persimmons

Ikkyu, Yoohoo, Sign, Peach

Structure
➔ eighty-eight lines of free verse.
➔ long poem
➔ 10 stanzas
➔ 2 Couplets
➔ 1 Sentence
Brief summary
The speaker is clearly Li-Young Lee himself, who immigrated to the United States
from China as a small boy. He has memories from his childhood and adulthood, ending
with an experience from the past year. This involves the Chinese fruit persimmons. He
experienced complications of living as a Chinese person in America such as American
culture and education.
Theme
Based on the first stanza, Li-Young Lee seems to be confused the differences between
persimmon and precision. It’s related to the theme of communication which the poet have
shown clearly throughout the poem.
Tone
● Nostalgic - Thinking about the past

We choose this word because Lee-young lee wrote about his past when he
was young and when his father was blind.
Diction
These are some of the diction that we think are important…

Precise diction

In Stanza 2 Li-Young Lee uses these precise word of choice “soft”, “tenderly”, and “sweet” he
used these word to show us the right way of how to peel and eat persimmons in a very
imaginable way.

Intimacy diction

In stanza 3, the writer uses phase like “Donna undresses” and “I part her legs”, he uses these
word to help show us that Li-Young Lee and Donna has an intimacy relationship.
Figurative Language
● Imagery (Stanza 2)
● Simile (Stanza 4)
put the knife away, lay down newspaper.
Wrens are soft as yarn.
Peel the skin tenderly, not to tear the meat.
Chew the skin, suck it,
and swallow.
● Metaphor (Stanza 6)

My mother said every persimmon has a sun ● Symbolism

inside, something golden, glowing,
warm as my face. Persimmons - process of painful memories
Stylistic Device/Sound
● Rhyme (stanza 9) ● Sibilance (stanza 8)

This year, in the muddy lighting I gave him the persimmons,

of my parents’ cellar, I rummage, looking swelled, heavy as sadness,

for something I lost. and sweet as love.

● Assonance (stanza 10)

Two persimmons, so full they want to drop from the

cloth.
Vocabulary
● Persimmons
○ A type of fruit popular in Asia
● Precision
○ Being exact and accurate.
● Ripe
○ Ready to harvest and eat
● Cardinal
○ Birds found in North and South America.