Can anyone analyze this poem for me? I dont get the indepth meaning!?

Question

Eating Together
Li-Young Lee (hes male)

In the steamer is the trout
seaseoned with slivers of ginger,
two sprigs of green onion, and sesame oil.
We shall eat it with rice for lunch,
brothers, sister, my mother who will
taste the sweetest meat of the head,
holding it between her fingers
deftly the way my father did
weeks ago. Then he lay down
to sleep like a snow covered road
winding through the pines older than him,
without any travelers, and lonely for no one.




i dont need what it means in english for all you smartasses
i need what the in dept meaning it of the poem
which i think is what the last part is
but thats the part i really dont understand
i know his dad died but whats it trying to say?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I believe the the writer is trying to tell us that thought his father has died, he has no fear of the coldness that death represents (In the cold grave).
He is traveling this road (A pathway we must all travel) but he is not lonely for those who he has left behind. The trees represent those who have gone before him (Older than himself in death). It is their company that he now enjoys because he has recognized many of his kin who have gone on before.

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thank you all =)

Answer 2

older than him means he's moved to a higher level
without any travellers means he has no burdens on him
lonely for no one means he still has the love of his family and friends
Only smartasses would not understand

Answer 3

I would say it conveys something of the loneliness of death, like the loneliness of the winter road, empty and deserted. Yet paradoxically his father, who dies, does not feel lonely because that is what death is, going beyond all human emotion, all feeling, being in an immense world all on your own in some way. The poem obviously changes at weeks ago, with two long vowels that slow you down, i: and o:. Before that it moves quickly, the first lines repeating the "s" sound, which is threatening in its own way, a kind of snakey feeling maybe. The long vowels and slowing continue in "lay", "down", "sleep", "snow", etc. I think the end is significant too; notice the last two words are "no one".
It strikes me as a kind of image of death, becoming no one

That's as far as I can get. Good luck!

Answer 4

My initial thought was that I liked the imagery of a snow-covered road through pines, but while I felt that at some visceral level, I wasn't quite sure why that was.

Did the poet's father lay down to sleep like a "snow covered road" because his body was wrapped in white cloth when placed in the grave? White is the colour of grief and bereavement in China, isn't it?

Is the reference to pines "older than him" an allusion to those who have gone down that road before, his ancestors?

The poet referring to the road being without any travellers and not feeling lonely because of it suggests to me that he thinks his father has totally ceased to exist, rather than that he has wandered off down that road like some people who believe in life after death might think.

There is, I think, a fairly obvious contrast between the start of the poem where a family is preparing food and then sitting down to enjoy the sensuous pleasures of a meal together, while the absent father is compared to a cold, deserted road.

Hope this might stir some ideas for you.