Eating Together

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1986

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem’s compact form links it to the Imagist movement; the poem creates a snapshot of a moment in time rendered through clear, non-figurative description.

The lines vary in length from seven syllables (Line 9) to 13 syllables (Line 12), but neither length is remarkable nor stands out. Lee surrounds Line 12 with other long lines, and he places Line 8 within shorter lines, giving the poem a deliberate, organized appearance. The tidiness relates to the food and the uncontested hierarchical dynamics of the family. The speaker specifies exactly the amount of green onion—“two sprigs” (Line 3)—and there is no question that the mother will lead the lunch and get to eat the fish head.

The poem is in free verse, so there’s no explicit rhyme scheme or meter. While there’s no overt rhyme scheme, Lee brings melody to the poem with internal near-rhymes and assonance—parts of words recapitulate sounds or syllables creating echoes. For example, in Line 2, “slivers” and “ginger” rely on the same short “i” sound; “green” and “sesame” in Line 3 contain the same long “e” that in Line 6 occurs in “sweetest” and “meat.” These echoing words bring to mind the shadowy presence of the father who has died at the meal.

Alliteration

Alliteration, a literary device of using words that start with the same letter, creates melody or places emphasis. In Lee’s poem, words that begin with “s” revolve around the trout: The trout is in the “steamer” (Line 1), and is prepared with “slivers of ginger” (Line 2), and “sprigs of green onions” and “sesame oil” (Line 3). Alliteration here reproduces the hissing sound of the trout being cooked, harmonizing the ingredients. The ginger, green onion, and sesame oil aren’t random—they’re intentionally there to add to the trout’s taste.

In the second half of the poem, Lee pivots to “w” words, with “weeks” (Line 9), “winding” (Line 11), and “without” (Line 12). Each “w” word begins its respective line, creating a pattern and connecting each of these lines to the speaker’s recollection of their father. They can’t let go of the “w,” nor can they disconnect themselves from their father. The “w” words and the father remain present. The “to” (Line 10) disrupts the pattern and connects to the father, who’s “lonely for no one” (Line 12). The “to” is alone, surrounded by lines beginning with “w,” but it’s not lonely, as it has the “w” words to keep it company.

Simile and Metaphor

A simile is a comparison using a connecting word such as “like,” while a metaphor is a comparison that does not use such linking words. In Lee’s poem, the sole comparison is about the speaker’s father’s death. Although the speaker has described everything about the meal in non-figurative, clear words, he is unable to simply say that his father has died. Instead, the speaker must euphemize what happened, first saying that his father “lay down / to sleep” (Lines 9-10), a metaphor that minimizes the finality of death, and then describing the afterlife as being “like a snow-covered road / winding through pines older than him, / without any travelers, and lonely for no one” (Lines 10-12).

The simile’s placement reflects its meaning: Just as death ends life, the simile ends the poem. At the same time, death doesn’t end a person’s immaterial presence for the living—the speaker can still summon the memories of his dead father, making him a part of the meal. Moreover, to comfort himself in his grief, the speaker imagines his father as “lonely for no one” (Line 12), journeying to join the generations that have gone down the wintry road before and eventually being joined by the mother and siblings that will follow.