Eating Together

“Eating Together” is a lyric poem from the debut collection Rose (1986) by Li-Young Lee. Like many of the other poems from this collection, “Eating Together” is autobiographical, featuring memories of Lee’s mother, father, and siblings.

In “Eating Together,” Lee provides a detailed, straightforward description of a family lunch, touching on themes like the unifying power of food, the authority of parents, and the presence of death. While the dishes and their preparation mark the family as being of Chinese background, Lee is ambivalent about being labeled a Chinese American poet. Lee’s parents were born and raised in China, but Lee doesn’t want people to reduce him to an ethnic or racial identity. Moreover, although his poetry is discernibly personal, Lee doesn’t identify as a confessional poet—“Eating Together” is thus not about biographical disclosure, but instead an example of Lee’s commitment to a depersonalized voice and poems that emphasize precise language and clear images.

Poet Biography

Lee was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1957 to parents who had been born and raised in China. Lee’s mother Jia Ying came from a powerful political family; her grandfather Yuan Shikai (Lee’s great-grandfather) had been the first president of the Republic of China in 1913.