Early in the Morning
19 pages • 38-minute read
Li-Young LeeEarly in the Morning
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Themes
Domesticity & Routine
“Early in the Morning” explores themes of home life and domesticity. The poem focuses on three small events: the preparation of breakfast, the mother’s combing and styling of her hair, and the undoing of the hair in the evening. These events are relayed as daily routines which the mother and the father participate in. These routines reveal the supportive functioning of the family as a unit and suggest the coherence of familial roles as essential to a harmonious home life.
Before the day begins, the mother is already getting ready for her specific tasks. The effort the poem takes to relay the process of the mother’s hair routine suggests that she cannot complete her other tasks without first readying herself. This moment of self-care reveals the mother attends to herself first before she takes on the responsibilities of the household. This shows that she values her role as caregiver while also valuing her own wellness. Her second task of the day is to prepare the family breakfast. The meal consists of rice or some other grain and sliced vegetables. It reveals cultural preference—it is not a traditional American breakfast with bacon, pancakes or cinnamon rolls. Health is of obvious concern, as the food she makes is highly nutritious. She therefore upholds her familial role by looking after her own wellness and her family’s.
The mother’s hair styling routine is not simply for practical purposes; it is part of the father’s daily routine as well. Every morning, he enjoys watching and listening as the mother performs this task. It signals for him that it is also time for his day to begin. The mother’s routine is essential for the father’s routine as well. As the two go about their own separate tasks during the day, they come back together at nightfall. The father also partakes in the mother’s hair styling, as he is the one to remove it at the close of day. The routine becomes a moment of enjoyment for both, as it signals the end of the day has come. The action is cyclical, repeated for the overall balance of the domestic unit.
Mindfulness & Attention to Detail
A common theme throughout all of the Li-Young Lee’s work is mindfulness and the close attention to detail. Mindfulness is both a therapeutic and spiritual technique where the seer achieves an elevated mental state by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment using the five senses. The objective is to acknowledge and accept feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations as truthful reality in order to produce a calming effect. This practice is evident throughout “Early in the Morning,” as the speaker employs conscious attention to each moment.
In the first stanza, the speaker pays very close attention to the food being prepared. He hears the “gurgling” water as it simmers over the flame on the stove (Line 2). He is aware of his surroundings, noting the quiet of the morning as the birds have not yet begun to sing. When he describes his mother combing her hair, he takes time to describe the details: the comb is an ivory comb, the hair is heavy and black. Such conscious awareness of the present moment sets the tone of the poem. It feels relaxed, accepting and calm.
This tone continues throughout the poem because of the speaker’s mindfulness. He situates his mother within the room by placing her at the foot of the bed. By acknowledging her physical location, the speaker’s attention is then able to notice the father who is listening to the sound of the comb moving through the mother’s hair. The senses stimulated here are visual and audial. By tuning into his own senses, the speaker is then able to observe his father’s sensorial experience.
As a mindful observer of the mother and father, the speaker is not an obtrusive presence within the poem. Rather, he allows for the reader to witness these moments occur slowly with him. The effect of the speaker’s mindful attention is a gentle tone that acknowledges the relationship between the mother and the father and accepts the relationship he has with both of them.
Love, Intimacy & Sensuality
The underlying connection between the two themes mentioned above is the universal theme of love and intimacy. “Early in the Morning” is an intimate poem because its subject is the relationship of a mother and father as seen through the eyes of their son. The speaker is able to see clearly both his father and his mother as separate individuals and attaches no obvious emotional claims to either of them. Rather, through his mindful attention to the events of the poem, the speaker is able to relay his feeling of love for them on a subtextual level. This is revealed through diction choices, such as the use of the words “glide” and “music” when describing the act of the mother combing her hair. These words provide a loving tone that suggests he looks upon his mother’s beauty with reverence.
When the speaker describes how his mother styles her hair into a bun, he states, “for half of a hundred years she has done this” (Line 18). By choosing to relate her age through euphemism, the speaker displays consideration for his mother’s feelings, acknowledging the potential sensitivity of exposing her age. This loving gesture is subtle and flows into the next two lines which reveal how the father delights in seeing the mother’s hair styled. Such understanding of the mother’s emotional sensitivities and the father’s personal preferences suggests that the speaker knows them both on an intimate level. It is with careful attention that these details are conveyed and thus imply the love the speaker feels for his parents.
However, the poem does not only center on the love that exists between parents and speaker, but the speaker also acknowledges the subtle, intimate love that exists between his mother and father. The subtextual sensuality of the final stanza suggests that the speaker knows his parents still desire each other. He describes his mother’s hair falling down as if through the eyes of his father. The speaker then unifies the mother and the father as a couple when they choose to untie the curtains. Therefore, the dynamic between the mother and father reveals a loving, sensual partnership.
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