Poem Analysis: Mnemonic By Li-Young Lee

In “Mnemonic” by Li-Young Lee a man is looking back on his life while falling asleep. He tries to recall the memory of his father and his blue sweater. He remembers his father wrapping him in the blue sweater when he was cold, but he never gives the sweater back. The boy fondly remembers his father and all the love his father had for him, and the first sign of regret is seen. The sweater is a symbol of love from father to son but the love was unrequited and the boy, now a man, wants nothing more than to show his father how much he loves him. The man’s loving memory quickly shifts to one of disappointment. He recalls his father’s memory and how complex it was, saying that he was “A man who forgot nothing” (l 13). He then thinks of his own memory saying “ There is no order / to my memory, a heap / of
The man misses his father and regrets not understanding his father when he was alive. In an interview with Bill Moyers Lee agrees that he “Learned the most about his father after he had passed away” and in “Mnemonic” it is clearly shown that Lee mirrors the man in his own poem. This parallel is also seen in the poem’s structure. The ideas in the poem have little order and stanzas rarely build off of the lines before it and Lee’s “uncatalogued” memory is seen in the lack of order. Regret of the man’s relationship with his father is found in lines 25 and 26 when he says “All things reveal themselves to me / only gradually”. Tragically the truth of the father-son relationship is only recognized by the man after his father’s death, and he regrets the truth of not having the chance to fully live his life with his father. Finally, the man’s regret is cemented with the heart of the poem, “Memory is sweet. / Even when it’s painful, memory is sweet” (Ll 27-28). While the memory of his father is sweet, the man will always have the sour taste of not understanding his relationship with him when he