Reread lines 9-12 in “I Ask My Mother to Sing.” What idea is suggested by the image of the water lilies filling with water, spilling it into the lake, and filling it up again? Consider the event described in the final stanza.

Question

What are some ideas? I know it has something to do with life.

Answer 1

I ASK MY MOTHER TO SING
Li-Young Lee

She begins, and my grandmother joins her.
Mother and daughter sing like young girls.
If my father were alive, he would play
His accordion and swing like a boat.

I've never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace,
nor stood on the great Stone Boat to watch
the rain begin on Kuen Ming Lake, the picnickers
running away in the grass.

But I love to hear it sung:
how the waterlilies fill with rain until
they overturn, spilling water into water,
then rock back, and fill with more.

Both women have begun to cry,
But neither stops her song.

* * *
"I Ask My Mother to Sing" from Rose by Li-Young Lee. Copyright © 1986. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

Just as the water is being reused, so does the family tradition of this song go on.