The Gift

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1986

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Splinter

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.

Hands

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). Both son and wife have sustained injuries in their hands, but it also takes the dexterity of well-trained hands to remove these troublesome objects. Lee’s father, a doctor, has hands that serve as “flames of discipline” (Line 12), symbolizing the years of study and practice that went into his life as a doctor. Though not a doctor himself, Lee learned how to care for loved ones from his father; he prepares to remove his wife’s splinter “so carefully she feels no pain” (Line 22). Thanks to the gentleness demonstrated by his father’s hands, Lee “did not lift up my wound and cry, / Death visited here!” (Lines 31-32). It is no longer necessary to dramatize his injury; rather, his father has planted “a tiny flame” (Line 17) there that he will later use to ease his wife’s pain.

Gifts

Gifts in this poem symbolize a unique ability and an intangible offering. The father’s “flames of discipline” (Line 12) demonstrate the gift he has for relieving suffering, a result of his medical training. More important, however, is the gift he symbolically plants in his son’s “palm, / a silver tear, a tiny flame” (Lines 16-17)—the gift of knowing how to soothe a loved one’s fear and pain through gentle touch and genuine desire to alleviate suffering. The “silver tear” (Line 16) and “tiny flame” (Line 17) implant the father’s special ability in his son. Even without imparting medical training, the father’s gift is strong enough to be passed down from one generation to the next.