EL Poetry Analysis: Eating Alone, Li-Young Lee

Eating Alone

Li-Young Lee, 1957

I’ve pulled the last of the year’s young onions.
The garden is bare now. The ground is cold,
brown and old. What is left of the day flames
in the maples at the corner of my
eye. I turn, a cardinal vanishes.
By the cellar door, I wash the onions,
then drink from the icy metal spigot.

Once, years back, I walked beside my father
among the windfall pears. I can’t recall
our words. We may have strolled in silence. But
I still see him bend that way-left hand braced
on knee, creaky-to lift and hold to my
eye a rotten pear. In it, a hornet
spun crazily, glazed in slow, glistening juice.

It was my father I saw this morning
waving to me from the trees. I almost
called to him, until I came close enough
to see the shovel, leaning where I had
left it, in the flickering, deep green shade.

White rice steaming, almost done. Sweet green peas
fried in onions. Shrimp braised in sesame
oil and garlic. And my own loneliness.
What more could I, a young man, want.

The poem is tinged with melancholy as the speaker relates his loneliness as he goes about his life on his own, gardening, harvesting produce, and preparing his food, while reminiscing about his father.

The speaker is obviously fond of his father, and his love and tender affection for his father is evident in the poem. He recalls how he "walked beside (his father)". Although he "can't recall (their) words", this by no means indicates that his father was of little importance to him - on the contrary, the speaker's ability to remember such a memory of his father so poignantly despite it having occurred "years back" and his sudden recollection seems more likely to suggest that his father meant a lot to him. The speaker's reminiscence of his father is sentimental, almost poignantly and poetically tender. There is an almost poetic quality in the way he recounts the scene of "windfall pears" ("windfall" refers to the fallen pears that had dropped to the ground after ripening, but the word also has positive denotations of good fortune, which is another meaning of "windfall") and "glistening juice" from the pear, painting a rather happy, blissful shining picture of father and son "stroll(ing) in silence". The silence in this case is depicted tenderly, not awkwardly, and seems to imply how father and son were completely at ease and comfortable in each other's company, and were so close they did not even feel the need to use words to communicate. The speaker remembers his father's actions very clearly, down to even the precise motion of his "left hand braced on knee, creaky". His detailed recollection of his father thus shows that the memory is rather precious and cherished to him, revealing that he held his father quite dearly. Furthermore, the way his father would "lift and hold to (his) eye" the pear, showing him the "hornet (which) spun crazily" seems to depict a heartwarming scene of a father bringing his son out on an expedition in the outdoors, and delighting his son with an amusing, somewhat entertaining and exciting sight, which highlights the intimate and affectionate relationship between the speaker and his father. No longer with his father, the speaker nevertheless seems to miss his father so much that he even seems to see his father "this morning waving...from the trees". His yearning for his father and the sentimental remembrance of his father are revealing of the speaker's tender love and fondness for his father.

There is a hint of melancholy to the speaker's tone. The scene is described to be cold and frigid, as explicitly stated by the statement "the ground is cold". From the way the speaker describes the garden to be "bare" and how he harvests the "last" of the onions, we can deduce that it is probably winter, as the plants in the garden have all withered and died from the cold, and there is only the very last of the season's crops left. The coldness is accentuated by how the speaker "drink(s) from the icy metal spigot". The chilliness of the setting evokes a sense of bleak harshness that one commonly associates with winter, implying a sense of coldness, a lack of human warmth and emotion. This contributes to an overall mood of sorrow and misery. This coldness is juxtaposed by hints of warmth, creating a somewhat cruel sense of irony. "What is left of the day flames in...the corner of (the speaker's) eye" and later, in the last stanza, the speaker prepares a meal of "steaming" rice. The words "flames" and "steaming" may be associated with warmth, yet these are only mentioned briefly, fleetingly. "What is left of the day" implies the last vestiges of warmth and daylight as dusk descends, yet the speaker is only able to catch a fleeting glimpse of it from "the corner of (his) eye", before it "vanishes" and disappears from his sight. The speaker's meal, while hot and "steaming", lacks the warmth of human companionship, as he laments the "loneliness" of eating alone. The description of the food he has prepared, with dishes of "sweet green peas fried in onions" and "shrimp braised in sesame oil and garlic" seems sumptuous, almost seeming to be more fit to be a meal shared with one's family. Yet, the speaker has no company, and is accompanied only by his "own loneliness". Indeed, the word "own", implying singularity, coupled side-by-side with the word "loneliness" compounds the idea of solitude and isolation even more, adding to the sense of desolation. The brief, fleeting mentions of warmth is ultimately overpowered by the dominating cold, leaving the speaker unable to find a semblance of warmth, comfort or love as he despairs in his solitude.

There is also a theme of loss that is very poignant in the poem. One associates winter, the setting of the scene, as a season of lifelessness and death, as the extreme coldness of the weather cannot support life. The idea of barrenness is reinforced by the "bare" garden, utterly devoid of life, a picture of death and lifelessness, as one can imagine the desolate ground, a dull dark "brown" without the green of living plants. As the speaker reminisces about his father, the mention of a "rotten pear" again brings up the idea of decay and death. Although not explicitly stated, the poem seems to imply that the speaker has lost his father, and the multiple recurring hints of death in the poem could perhaps suggest that the father has passed away. Irregardless, the speaker's father is clearly no longer with him, as the speaker recalls how he "once...walked beside (his) father". Particularly striking is the use of the past tense as the speaker recollects about his father - "walked" and "strolled", implying that they no longer walk and stroll together. Instead, the speaker now walks in the garden on his own. The speaker seems to see his father in the garden, before he "came close enough" and realises that his father is not actually there, and that is was merely a hallucination. His words seem to be tinged with a despondency as he realises his father's absence - the word "until" evokes a sense of disappointment and the darkness of the "flickering, deep green shade" seems to create an atmosphere of sombreness and sadness. As the speaker ends the poem, he professes that "what more could (he)...want". The phrase, supposed to mean contentment, as one would expect from the way the speaker seems to have a decent and satisfactory life (evidenced by the nice, sumptuous meal that he is about to enjoy), is paradoxically tinged with a hint of bitterness and melancholy, seemingly implying that he is actually discontent and unhappy with his life. The readers of the poem are left wanting, as if we too, can sense the poignant loss that the speaker feels, as if yearning for something that is missing from his life.

The heartbreaking loneliness of the poem is encapsulated within its poignant title, "Eating Alone". The act of eating is one commonly associated with communion, with mealtimes a time for gathering and sharing food with one's loved ones. The speaker's meal, consisting "rice", "peas", "onions", "shrimp", "sesame oil" and "garlic" seems rather sumptuous, almost as if fit to be shared with multiple people. Yet, the speaker is miserably "eating alone", as the title states, confronted with an immense melancholy and loneliness as he eats in solitude, missing his father.