Analysis of The Poem My Father, in Heaven, is Reading Out Loud

The poem “My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud” is written by Li-Young Lee. In the poem there is a father figure who is viewed as religious and has passed away. The son has different opinions on this father and misses him after he passed. The poem’s main theme circles around death and how the love for someone after they die remains. One could say the relationship between the father and son is storge. Lee’s poem, “My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud” demonstrates an attachment to a loved one and overcoming a family struggle.

Storge is the love that refers to instinctual affection such as the love a parent feels for their child and vice versa. The father is portrayed to have a tough love mentality. In lines, 9-11 Lee states, “Because my father walked the earth with a grave, determined rhythm, my shoulders ached from his gaze.” These lines suggest he was strict but, wanting the best for his children. The son’s opinion of his father changes to a more negative connotation. It is human nature to have the type of love, storge for your child. Making sure children have the health and safety they need to thrive along with ethics and cultural values of life. “My father’s shoulders ached from the pulling of oars, my life now moves with a powerful back and forth rhythm: nostalgia, speculation,” (Lee Lines 11-15). The father worked hard for the family because he has aches from working. The son is having nostalgia and reminiscing on the past, appreciating his father and his contributions to the family. All in all, the relationship the author showed between the father and son is the love of storge.

The central theme of the poem is death. The son’s father is said to be in heaven and watches down on his children. In the first line of the author states, “My father in heaven, is reading out loud to himself Psalms or news”. From this line in the poem it is learned the father is in heaven and it is apparent he is religious and reads the bible. Even though the father is no longer with the son, he is still making an impact on the lives of others. “He is listening for the sound of children in the yard. Was that laughing or crying? So much depends upon the answer, for either he will go on reading, or he’ll run to save a child’s day from grief. As it is in heaven, so it was on earth”. From lines two through eight the reader discovers the father comes down when he is needed by the children. When the author says the father will save a child from a day of grief, it can be taken as a sympathetic tone. He will do anything to keep a child’s day bright and away from sadness. In spirit he is still with them. In brief, the fundamental theme of Lee’s poem is death and the emotional attachment between the father and son.

Having an attachment to a love one after they have passed is a hard concept to understand. Lee’s poem demonstrates this concept in his writing in lines 22-28, “The World’s beginnings are obscure to me, its outcomes inaccessible… But I don’t disparage scholars; my father was one and I loved him.” Despite his father passing, the son decides he wants to show the love he has for his father he never showed before. The text also speculates the son wants to become a better person. Towards the ending of the third stanza and the fourth stanza, the author has the son realize him and his father are similar in personalities.

A struggle is presented in the text is, “A remarkable disappointment to him, I am like anyone who arrives late in the millennium and is unable to stay to the end of days”. There was period of time when the son questioned whether he was a disappointment to his father and felt the need to change. In the last stanza, the reader can interpret it has reconciliation. Lee comes to the resolution that the father is a good and normal person. “He did not decide peace or war, home or exile, escape by land or escape by sea” (Lee Lines 37-38). These lines explain how he used to see his father compared to now. God can decide these things, but his father cannot.

According to the American Psychological Association, “Everyone reacts differently to death and employs personal coping mechanisms for grief. Research shows that most people can recover from loss on their own through the passage of time if they have social support and healthy habits”. The son felt grief and reconciliation. The son believes his father is just like him and is a role model of others.

In final analysis, “My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud” demonstrates an attachment to a loved one and overcoming a family struggle using storge and the central theme of death. The poem holds the power of the father’s choices and sacrifices to better the lives of his child and family.