Eating Together

“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman (1856)

Lee has cited Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson—two renowned American poets—as admired influences. Whitman’s speakers often discard individual personality to embrace the sublimity of the greater whole. Here, “Song of Myself,” is meant to be an anthem for each human being, just as Lee’s poem expresses the universal experience of grief.

“I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” by Emily Dickinson (1891)

Lee’s idea of “nobody-hood” (See: Background) comes from Dickinson’s lyric poem where her speaker privileges the “Nobody” and dismisses the “Somebody” as “dreary” (Line 5) and pompous. In “Eating Together,” Lee’s speaker doesn’t broadcast his personality, trying to embrace the selflessness Dickinson advocates as a way of processing mourning.

“I Ask My Mother to Sing” by Li-Young Lee (1986)

The poem features an “I” in the title and the text, but Lee’s speaker continues their “nobody-hood,” watching his mother and grandmother sing and his father play the accordion, documenting their emotions rather than his own. The poem is an example of how Lee uses poetry to decipher memories.