Intricacy Of Simplicity In Li-Young Lee's From Blossoms

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Kim Tran Martha Silano English 101 January 27, 2015 The Intricacy of Simplicity in Li-Young Lee’s “From Blossoms” At first glance, the poem tells a story about the speaker buying peaches at a roadside stand and eating them on a nice summer day. Upon further reading, the story begins to unfold and the layers begin to reveal a profound hidden meaning. The imagery of the speaker eating fruit soon dissipates as the reader’s thoughts begin to ponder about life. How did a simple everyday experience just become so complex? “From Blossoms” is an exhibit of how a simple indulgence such as eating peaches on the side of the road correlates to the beautiful sentiment of savoring every moment in life. To begin with, Lee paints a picture of how the peaches went from blossoms to being sold at the roadside stand, and then on to him taking the first bite and how wonderful it is. Lee states this in “From blossoms comes/this brown paper bag of peaches/we bought from the boy” (1-2) coupled …show more content…

He not only describes the act of eating his favorite fruit, but is describing how it’s possible to take so much pleasure indulging in something that seems insignificant. The loving tone in the lines “The fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into/the round, jubilance of peach” (15-16) demonstrates how much the author appreciates the moment that is being experienced. In the excerpt “to eat/not only the skin, but the shade/not only the sugar, but the days” (11-13) Lee is telling the reader to savor each and every part of the fruit as they should every moment of each day. As can be seen in the last stanza, Lee writes “There are days we live/as if death were nowhere” (17-18) to stress the importance of his sentiment on reveling in the delicacy of everyday life and not letting the thoughts of death ruin any precious moments that may

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