In his poem “Early in the Morning,” Li-Young Lee explores the relationship between privacy and sensuality through the use of imaginative seeing. Rather than gaining pleasure from observing the sexual act itself, the speaker of the poem serves as a voyeur to the subtle nuances of desire present between his mother and father. The speaker’s voyeurism is not interested in objectification or self-satisfaction but is invested in respecting the privacy of intimate moments while also honoring the subject of desire. As a result, the poem operates under a “slow burn” effect. The parent’s sexuality is thus implied through subtext and any overt sexual action occurs off the page.

Though the poem’s seeing is done with an astute attention to detail, the speaker is not a physically present observer. He remains absent from all events the poem describes and therefore engages with his parents through an imaginative perspective. This creates a safe distance between voyeur and subject—son and parent—and accounts for the poem’s respectful tone. The speaker peers into the private lives of his parents not for any personal gain but out of the admiration he has for them. He does not abuse his privilege of intimacy—he uses that intimacy to establish the necessity of privacy. By extending beyond his own physical limitations, the speaker’s imagination expands his consciousness and he is ultimately able to transcend the self. Therefore, the speaker becomes the conduit for seeing, with his imagination focused solely on his parents.

Because “Early in the Morning” exists inside the speaker’s imagination, the poem begins with a moment outside of linear time. The entire first stanza is one sentence and the logical understanding of events moves backwards:

While the long grain is softening

in the water, gurgling

over a low stove flame, before

the salted Winter Vegetable is sliced

for breakfast, before the birds,

my mother glides an ivory comb

through her hair (Lines 1-7).

The use of “while” as the first word suggests that things are happening concurrently, but Lee also uses the word “before” to signify events that have occurred prior. This syntaxial construct mimics the way the mind moves during recollection and indicates that the event being described occurs within the imagination. The first-person speaker is not identified until Line 6, which again, highlights the speaker’s distance from his subject. Once the mother is introduced, time continues to move backward as the speaker recounts her grooming routine. Though he is not physically present, the speaker provides clear and direct visual images, suggesting the memory is experienced in the present.

These images activate the embodied imagination of the reader and are central to the poem’s sensuality. For example, the “slow burn” quality of the poem is enacted by the softening grain and the time it takes for the rice to be prepared. While the rice is cooking, the mother combs her hair. The mother’s hair is the prominent symbol of sensuality in the poem and, like the rice, the speaker takes time to describe it. By noting its visual qualities (its thickness and blackness), the mother’s hair slowly becomes an erogenous symbol. In the second stanza, the speaker describes his mother sitting at the end of the bed—a location suggestive of lovemaking—while his father watches. The father receives pleasure from watching her comb her hair and even listens for its “music” (Line 11). In this moment, the speaker becomes the voyeur to his father’s own desire and he continues to imagine the build-up of sensual experience.

The “slow burn” continues into the third stanza, where the speaker intricately describes his mother’s hairstyle. Each step of the hair-doing process—combing, pulling tightly, rolling between the fingers, and pinning into a bun—is carefully noted, down to the smallest detail. These details build slowly, adding to the developing sensual energy of the poem. The speaker relays these details as if witnessing them himself, but it is the father who watches the mother do this. When the speaker reveals that the father “likes to see [the hair] like this,” he implies his father’s sensual satisfaction (Line 19). However, the speaker does not dwell on the sensual implications of this statement but moves on to explain that the father views the hair as “kempt” (Line 20). The speaker allows both his mother and father some privacy within that intimate moment. He does not push the sensuality beyond what is publicly decent. In the company of his son, the father admits he likes his mother’s hair in a bun because it is orderly and well-kempt. But the speaker understands there is more to his preference than what his father is telling him.

In the final stanza, the speaker provides a consummate conclusion to this sensual energy, but he does so at a distance. Lee writes:

But I know

it is because of the way

my mother’s hair falls

when he pulls the pins out (Lines 21-24).

It is through this imaginative knowing, that the speaker acknowledges his father’s desire for his mother—its “slow burn” is gradually fulfilled as the mother’s hair becomes undone. Indeed, it is only the word “he” that conjures the sexual nature between them. The mother is not letting her own hair fall from its confinement; it is her husband who pulls the pins out. Though the speaker is aware of the desire between his parents, he permits the knowledge of this fact to remain private. He maintains a distance in order to be respectful of boundaries. Such gestures of privacy are further explored in the concluding lines, when the speaker relates the falling of his mother’s hair to “curtains / when they [are untied] in the evening” (Lines 25-26). To close the curtains of a window is to provide a barrier between public observation and private experience. This separation allows for the development of intimacy and provides a safe environment for sensual exploration. Ultimately, the simile of “hair like curtains” alludes to a sexual relationship between the speaker’s parents. However, the speaker is not interested in their sexual lives but is more invested in the familiar sensuality of their relationship. He views their desire as the characteristic of an ideal partnership: it is the result of admiration, love and respect. By allowing his parents the privacy to be intimate within the poem, the speaker upholds their integrity and imparts that privacy is absolutely essential.