Eating Alone

Fiction | Poem | Adult

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Eating Alone” is a short lyric poem composed of four stanzas. A lyric is a type of poem that is not focused on describing a narrative (or telling a story) but expresses the personal feelings or thoughts of the speaker. For example, “Eating Alone” does not follow a linear series of events or focus on how his father died. Rather, it is told through the perspective of the speaker and highlights his memories and thoughts. A stanza is a break in the lineation of a poem’s organizational structure. Stanza breaks often occur when the subject, idea, or thought of the previous stanza concludes. They are similar to paragraph breaks in prose. In “Eating Alone,” the garden is the subject of the first stanza. The second stanza moves from the garden to a memory, so Lee utilizes a stanza break to signify a shift in subject.

The poem is written in the free verse style and has no regular meter or rhyme scheme. Therefore, line breaks occur by natural cadence or the rhythmic rise and fall of the language as it is spoken.

Imagery

One of Lee’s most characteristic elements is his use of the image. Imagery is the use of visually descriptive language to evoke a mental visualization in the reader. Many of Lee’s images are also built upon figurative language which invites a sensory experience (of sight, sound, scent, touch, or taste). For example, the image that describes the sunset is characteristic of Lee’s use of imagery:

What is left of the day flames

in the maples at the corner of my

eye. (Lines 3-5)

The light of sun is phrased as “what is left of the day” which metaphorically suggests that evening is near. The word “flames” is used as a verb to describe how the light is seen against the branches of the maple trees in early fall, with leaves that are red and orange like flames. All the while, this is observed using peripheral vision, through the corner of the speaker’s eye. The image replicates the amount of time it took for the speaker to observe the scene: one brief moment. Lee achieves this by creating a compound image that requires multiple layers of visual imagining.

Caesura

Lee often uses the device caesura. A caesura is a pause or break within a line of poetry. It is often indicated through punctuation and can occur anywhere after the first word and before the last. There can also be more than one caesura in any given line. Caesurae are used to provide variation in the rhythm of a poem or to emphasize certain words or phrases. For example, the first stanza of “Eating Alone” contains many short, declarative sentences. These sentences provide breaks using punctuation like a period or comma. This provides rhythmic variation, as sentences will both end and begin on the same line. Caesura are marked by the “double pipe” symbol—||—when analyzing poetry.

The first stanza of “Eating Alone” is marked below:

I’ve pulled the last || of the year’s || young || onions.

The garden is bare now. || The ground is cold,

brown and old. || What is left of the day || flames

in the maples || at the corner of my

eye. || I turn, || a cardinal vanishes.

By the cellar door, || I wash the onions,

then drink || from the icy || metal || spigot.

Lee’s caesurae occur naturally and mimic the cadence of regular speech. The breaks are often identified by periods or commas but occasionally they occur sonically. In Line 1, both caesurae occur due to repetition of the “y” vowel sound. A pause is needed after “years” before repeating a similar sound in the word “young,” and again before “onions.”