The Gift

Consonance refers to the repetition of consonant sounds in words. Lee uses this to great effect in the opening stanza of “The Gift”:

To pull the metal splinter from my palm

my father recited a story in a low voice.

I watched his lovely face and not the blade.

Before the story ended, he’d removed

the iron sliver I thought I’d die from (Lines 1-5).

The melodious quality of the nine “l” and seven “m” sounds in these five lines lulls the reader into the same sense of serenity that the speaker experienced as a young boy with his father.

Among the other instances of consonance, the concluding lines stand out for the way they bring the poem full circle, sonically:

And I did not lift up my wound and cry,

Death visited here!

I did what a child does

when he’s given something to keep.

I kissed my father (Lines 31-35).

The six “d” and four “c/r” sounds give the lines an emphatic, deliberate emphasis that signals that the poem is coming to a close. The same goes for the three “r” sounds, each of which ends a line (Lines 31, 32, and 35). The final “r” provides the strong emphasis we associate, whether consciously or not, with the decisive ending of a poem.