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Sung-Ki Lee
Mrs. Boyd, 2B
MYP English 9
February 27, 2014

Personal Writing

Our personal life is hard to describe in just words because there are so many things that
occur simultaneously. We can describe our life through autobiographies, poems, and movies.
However, these things will not be able to include everything about our personal life. According
to Erika Taibl, Lee's story is personal and he uses the lyric "I" to tell his story and also Chris
Semansky says Lee loves to write about his family and personal experience and he seems to be
very close with his family knowing their routine. Li Lee-Young uses techniques such as irony,
symbolism, and more to describe his personal life while telling other things to the readers.

In Early in the Morning Lee Li-Young talks about his moms daily routine in the
morning; however, these words tell us more than what he says. In the poem he describes his
moms hair black as calligraphers ink and this tells us that his mom is still use to the Asian
ways rather than the American ways. A calligrapher is a traditional Asian artist, storyteller, and
poet; therefore, he is talking about how her mom is still use to the Asian ways. Also Lee Li-
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Young writes, my mother glides an ivory comb, through her hair, heavy ,and black as
calligraphers ink. This shows a contrast between light and dark; therefore, it is representing
how the mother is easy to identify in the American society because she is still inside her Asian
ways. Through this we discover that the time period in which they were was difficult because
they were new to the United States.

Lee writes about his difficulties of living in the United States through the poem For a
New Citizen of theses United States. In this poem Lee uses irony by describing something he
says he will not describe. In this poem he uses it a lot to describe his difficulties by saying that he
will not talk about them. This is showing how Lee cannot forget about the past and cannot But
birds, as you say, fly forward. Chris Semansky agrees with me by saying, As a poet of ritual
and memory, Lee honors the past but, in doing so, risks postponing the future. Through his
technique of writing we know that he misses his old rituals such as his mother always brushing
her hair Early in the Morning.

LI Lee-Young does not go into much depth; therefore, his techniques and devices used
are broad. This causes the readers to have trouble understanding what Lee is trying to say. Also
this creates multiple meanings that are hard to figure out while you are reading it. Because of this
confusion that Lee causes it can create people to not know what the meaning or milieu is about.
Therefore, the idea that technique and devices helps identify the meaning and milieu is false.
However, in most cases it can help identify the setting and the background of the time.

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How we use our techniques and devices really shape how the reader understand the
information. Although Lee writes like a autobiography, Semansky says that Lee is an author
who does write about his own lived experience, though he shapes it to fit the poem. Because Li
Lee-Young fitted his personal life well into the poem it allowed for great understanding and
knowing of the milieu.