Ronald Mei
English 201
Professor Perry
25 April 2022
Poetry Analysis
The poem I have chosen to analyze is “Learning to love America” by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim. This poem stood out to me because I feel related to the poem. Lin Lim’s poem starts off the majority of the sentences with the word ‘because’, which made me think that she was going to explain her story as an immigrant. When Lin Lim’s poem talked about the ocean swept along the coastline, it made me visualize why my parent work so hard to get settled in America. The poem “Learning to Love America” brings up my feeling about America and things to look back at in the future.
Lin Lim uses a lot of imagery and identity throughout her poem. An example of imagery used in the poem would be, “because my senses have caught up with my body, my breath with the air it swallows, my hunger with my mouth”. Based on this stanza, we can visualize the feeling of Lin Lim’s current state. When it comes to identity, the title kind of represents it already. Lin Lim expresses how his son struggles to adapt to the American lifestyle. She also describes the imperfections of the United States, which also builds the connection with the reader through relatabilities.
A different poem by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim that grabbed my attention is called ” Mother to Son”. This poem’s aspiring tone was the main reason why it caught my attention. The way Lin Lim writes her poems makes it easy for readers to paint the image in their heads. A great example of this is ” Go now and learn it.” After reading this line, you feel like she’s talking to you and you start imagining it. When rereading the poem, you can get multiple meanings because of previous memories and combine the different elements.
Both poems ” Learning to Love America” and ” Mother to son” by Shirley Geok- Lin Lim show a connection between her and her son. In ” Learning to Love America ” described how his son is having a hard time adapting to being an “American”. Lin Lim wrote a response for her son in ” Mother in son “, where she says ” You must believe me when I tell you there is a deep secret you must learn, a secret that can never be shared.” Based on both these quote it shows that Shirley Geok Lin Lim likes to write about his son.
Shirley Geok Lin Lim’s poems express a message to readers and an experience. The poems Lin Lim writes feel super relatable and her other poems are probably similar. The two peom shows that Lin Lim isn’t afraid to express her feeling about being an immigrant. As an Asian American with immigrant parents, I admire her work.
Work CitedGeok-Lin Lim , Shirley. “Learning to Love America.” Poetry Out Loud, https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/learning-to-love-america/.
Foust, Rebecca. “Three Poems from Ars Poetica for the Day by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim: ‘The Well,” ‘the Glass of Wine,” and ‘Mother to Son’: Women’s Voices for Change.” Women’s Voices For Change | Redefining Life After 40, 1 Oct. 2017, https://womensvoicesforchange.org/three-poems-from-ars-poetica-for-the-day-by-shirley-geok-lin-lim-the-well-the-glass-of-wine-and-mother-to-son.htm.
