Cultural and Historical Context of Poetry Day 16

Today’s Goals: consider how a poem’s cultural or historical context enriches understanding Focus Questions: What is the significance of a poem’s cultural and historical context? How does knowing the background help us understand the poem?

Cultural and Historical Context Can be defined as the political, social, cultural, and economical environment related to historical moments, events, and trends. When explicating (analyzing) poetry, it may be difficult to determine what is being said because we don’t know that the traditions, politics, understandings etc. of that time period may be different than what we are imagining in our heads. We need to study the past to put ourselves in their “shoes” to dig a little deeper.

Think, Pair, Share Can Poems be better understood within a cultural or historic context? Is it important to know when the poet lived? Where he/she lived? What he/she experienced? Why or why not?

Together: “A Hymn to Childhood” Let’s Read!

Reflect: References/Allusions Can you figure out what these reference allude to? Would understanding these reference help to better understand the poem? Why or Why not?

Together: Background Li-Young Lee (b. 1957) draws on his Chinese-American heritage in his poems, in particular his early experience of exile and migration. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, the son of Chinese parents exiled there having fallen foul of the Communist authorities. Lee's mother came from a noble family - her grandfather was the first president of the Republic of China - whereas his father's family were gangsters and entrepreneurs. Not only was their marriage disapproved of, Lee's father was also pro-Western and Christian, a combination that left him vulnerable in the new Communist state. Finding himself in exile, Dr Lee helped found a Christian college, but the family's security was short-lived when the then dictator of Indonesia, Sukarno, began to stir up anti-Chinese feeling. Dr Lee was arrested in 1958 and spent nineteen months in jail.

Together: Background On his release, the family began a supervised exile in Macau, but they managed to escape, first to Hong Kong and finally the United States in 1964. In America, Dr. Lee became a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania where Li-Young Lee grew up. Given this dramatic early experience, it's not surprising that Lee's poems often focus on themes of alienation and identity. Lee's work is also influenced by the classical Chinese poets Li Bo and Tu Fu whom he was taught to recite as a boy. Equally important is his father's Christianity and Lee's consequent exposure to the King James version of the Bible.

Together: Background Lee's poems bear the influence of his Chinese masters in their plain-spoken simplicity and strength. As Stern, his early mentor, comments, Lee's work is characterized by "a willingness to let the sublime enter his field of concentration and take over, a devotion to language, a belief in holiness." His is also a highly sensual voice that uses the encounter with the physical world as a gateway to profound meditations on loss and love. His skillful use of repetition - as in the insistent questions of 'A Hymn to Childhood' - is a means of organizing his poems, despite their lack of conventional form. Lee also uses silence in his poems, the spaces between stanzas furthering the argument as each thought unfolds in his reading style which makes the most of these pauses. In its quiet, deliberate progress, Lee's delivery allows the listener to take in the philosophical investigations of his work. It's a reading style which, along with the generous explanations of his poems, invites the reader into a quiet intimacy with the poet.

Together: Think: What does this mean for the poem? What new meaning does the poem have now that you know some context?

Together: Expand: Can the poem stand on its own? (Without the reader’s understanding of the historical references?) Why or Why not? Explain your answer.

In table groups: Read your groups poem out loud together. Discuss what you know, and what you don’t know. Complete the TSP-FASTT to the best of your abilities. When ready, flip over the poem and read some context. Then answer the questions on the back of the TSP-FASTT worksheet