The Gift

Two splinters appear in this poem, and as all readers of poetry should know, repetition signifies emphasis. Lee’s wife’s splinter brings back the memory of his own splinter when he was seven. Both of these splinters are occasions for tenderness on the behalf of the caregiver; as a result, they both symbolize the suffering of everyday life and the relief love can bestow. Both require “measures of tenderness” (Line 10) and “flames of discipline” (Line 12) to remove. The older episode is also transformed, in Lee’s version of the audience’s perspective, into “planting something in a boy’s palm / a silver tear, a tiny flame” (Lines 16-17). In this way, the splinter becomes not just a symbol of suffering but also one of growth. Once removed from the body, the splinter is a seed that will grow in place of that wound, leading to the tenderness the husband shows his wife.

In “The Gift,” hands symbolize both the place where suffering resides and the accomplished skill necessary to relieve such suffering. Lee’s father must “pull the metal splinter from my palm” in Line 1, while years later, “I shave her thumbnail down” (Line 21).