19 pages • 38 minutes read
The Gift
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Tenderness
Lee addresses this theme directly in describing his father’s hands as “two measures of tenderness” (Line 10) as they remove the splinter from his palm. But this is not the only time when his father’s calm demeanor is present in the poem. His father’s “low voice” (Line 2) and his “lovely face” (Line 3) all demonstrate that the father’s care for his son is obvious and visible to the boy. As a result of this care, the son is so transfixed by his father that he ignored “the blade” (Line 3) his father used to remove the splinter. Nor did he dissolve into hysterics after the fact. He “did not lift up my wound and cry, / Death visited here!” (Lines 31-32).
This love is transferred from the now adult son to his wife in the third stanza, when he prepares to remove a splinter from her thumb, unconsciously guided by his father’s example: “Look how I shave her thumbnail down / so carefully she feels no pain / Watch as I lift the splinter out” (Lines 21-23). Lee has intuited a lesson his father may or may not have intended to teach; he has learned how to care for his loved ones and save them from suffering. His quick and matter-of-fact removal of his wife’s splinter implies that he has learned this lesson well. This event is no more traumatic for his adult wife than it was for him as a seven-year-old.
Memory
Lee’s memory is hardly perfect in “The Gift.” He remembers the occasion, decades earlier when he was seven, and the “iron sliver I thought I’d die from” (Line 5). But whether thanks to the dramatic nature of the young implied in such a statement or the way his father’s tenderness turned the moment into a non-event, he “can’t remember the tale” (Line 6) his father told to distract him. He remembers actions better than words:
I recall his hands,
two measures of tenderness
he laid against my face,
the flames of discipline
he raised above my head (Lines 9-13).
In keeping with the occasion for writing the poem—the removal of his wife’s splinter, as explained in Authorial Context—he imperatively tells the reader to “Look how…” (Line 21) and to “Watch as…” (Line 23) he performs the actions that his father had performed earlier. Lee offers his father’s lesson to his reader explicitly, unlike the father who taught by example. Lee wants readers to remember how to do this for their loved ones.
Time
As noted earlier, this poem moves through time in interesting ways: Stanza 1 begins in past tense, Stanza 2 is in present, the third stanza blends past and present together, and Stanza 4 ends with a decisive shift to past. The use of the subjunctive in Stanza 3 complicates this progression, providing a “what might have been” element that is absent in the rest of this narrative poem. Instead of focusing solely on the events that occurred, Lee leads the reader to the interpretation he desires through this shift.
The use of the present tense in Stanza 2 is particularly noteworthy, as it demonstrates the lasting effect the father’s actions had for Lee. He can “hear his voice still” (Line 7) and “recall his hands” (Line 9) even now, decades later. This blends with the past actions of the father in the same stanza, emphasizing that this isn’t some random anecdote; it is a significant lesson in the ways of the world.
The shift in time that occurs in Stanza 3 is also worth considering. The alternate reality in which the reader haunts the boy’s life from the moment with his father until the present with his wife solidifies the use of present tense in the second stanza by bringing Lee’s recollections into action. Though this activity takes only four lines to complete (Lines 20-23), they are made richer by the play of time in the surrounding stanzas.
Unlock all 19 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Li-Young Lee
