To all poem lovers, help me!

[AznTLC]

Can anyone summarize this and explain it to me? i've read it many times and sitll don't understand

thanks in advance

------------

How I Got That Name

Lam Madrilvn Mei Ling Chin
Oh, how i love the resoluteness
of the first person singular
followed by that stalwart indicative
of "be," without the uncertain i-n-g
of "becoming." Of course,
the name had been changed
somewhere between Angel Island and the sea,
when my father the paperson
in the late 1950s
obsessed with a bombshell blonde
transliterated "Mei Ling" to "Marilyn."
And nobody dared question
his initial impulse for we all know
lust drove men to greatness,
not goodness, not decency.
And there I was, a wavward pink baby,
named after some tragic white woman
swollen with gin and Membutal.
My mother couldn't pronounce the "r."
She dubbed me "Numba one female offshoot"
lot brevity: henceforth, she will live and die
in sublime ignorance, flanked
by loving children and the "kitchen deity."
While my father dithers,
a tomcat in Hong Kong trash
a gambler, a petty thug,
who bought a chain of chopury joints
in Piss River, Oregon,
with bootlegged Gucci cash
Nobody dared question his integrity given
his nice, devout daughters
and his bright, industrious sons
as it filial piety were the standard
by which all earthly men were measured.

*

Oh, how trustworthy our daughters,
how thrifty our sons!
How we've managed to fool the experts
in education, statistics and demography--
We're not very creative but not adverse to note-learning.
Indeed, they can use us
But the "model minority" is a tease.
We know you are watching now,
so we refuse to give you any!
Oh, bambo shoots, bamboo shoots!
The furthier west we go, we'll hit east;
the deeper down we dig, we'll find China.
History has turned its stomach
on a black polluted beach--
where life doesn't hinge
on that red, red wheelbarrow,
but whether or not our new lover
in the final episode of "Santa Barbara"
will lean over a scented candle
and call us a "bitch."
Oh God, where have we gone wrong?
We have no inner resources!

*

Then, one redolent spring morning
the Great Patrirch Chin
peered down from his kiosk in heaven
and saw that his descendants were ugly.
One had a squarish head and a nose without a bridge.
Another profile--long and knobbed as a gourd.
A third, the sad, brutish one
may never, never marry.
And I, his least favorite--
"not quite boiled, not quite cooked."
a plump pornfret simmering in my juices--
too listless to fight for my people's destiny.
"To kill without resistance is not slaughter"
says the proverb. So, I wait for imminent death.
The fact that this death is also metaphorical
is testament to my lethargy.

*

So here lies Marilyn Mei Ling Chin,
married once, twice to so-and-so, a Lee and a Wong,
granddaughter of Jack "the patriarch"
and the brooding Suilin Fong,
daughter of the virtuous Yuet Kuen Wong
and G. G. Chin the infamous,
sister of a dozen, cousin of a million,
survived by everybody and forgotten by all.
She was neither black nor white,
neither cherished or vanquished,
just another squatter in her own bamboo grove
minding her poetry--
when one day heaven was unmerciful,
and a chasm opened where she stood.
Like the jowls of a mighty white whale,
or the jaws of a metaphysical Godzilla,
it swallowed her whole.
She did not flinch nor writhe,
nor fret about the afterlife,
but stayed! Solid as wood, happily
a little gnawed, tattered, mesmerized
by all that was lavished upon her
and all that was taken away!

[BJ_M]

got a little homework due tommorrow ?

[AznTLC]

kinda...due 2 days after tomorrow, but i gotta understand it first so i can do a project on it

[BJ_M]

anyway

it is a well known poem:

The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty by Marilyn Chin

and it's on assimilation..


you can get a little insight into this thing reading this review

http://www.rambles.net/chin_gone.html

[Roundabout]

who bought a chain of chopury joints
in Piss River, Oregon

Piss River, Oregon? I think I drove through there once.
Oops. I forgot, it was Coos Bay. :P

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Can't help with the poetry, either.

Hope someone can. It's incomprehensible to me.

[Forum Troll]

To, me the person speaking is lamenting her life. She feels insignificant compared to the rest of the world, and quite out of place. She wishes for more, but knows her heritage and culture determine her place in life, and it is impossible for her to change it, no matter what she does.

[AznTLC]

How I Got That Name is the title

and i've read that thing, it doesn't help

[BJ_M]

How I Got That Name is the title

and i've read that thing, it doesn't help

yea -- i meant that is the name of the book

[AznTLC]

Forum Troll, thank you

now that clears up a little for me

[BJ_M]

its the story of her life, her culture and name change .. a lot of rambling on and not to good staying married ..

don't read to much in to it -- its all surface stuff - very high school level really ..
but easy to read .. and flows ..

[tweedledee]

She did not flinch nor writhe,
nor fret about the afterlife,
but stayed! Solid as wood, happily
a little gnawed, tattered, mesmerized
by all that was lavished upon her
and all that was taken away!

She's a bit like a girl I knew once. I think she wishes she was more hot in the cot.

[888888]

After this poem, I have found its meaning. This poem is garbage. Pretentious, wordy crap. Reading every line was like torture because of its forced nature. I hate ethnic poetry and I hate hostile poetry. I have heard some terrible Asian American poetry and this is right up there. Yuck.

And Marylin Monroe took Nembutal, not Membutal.

[AznTLC]

so...did she change her name?

[AznTLC]

wow, u found a mistake out of the whole poem, i'm sure there's more, but... would u mind add in some information ?

[adam]

There is a pretty in depth analysis of the poem here: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/chin/mccormick.htm

Now don't plagiarize.

[888888]

wow, u found a mistake out of the whole poem, i'm sure there's more, but... would u mind add in some information ?

There is no real insight in this poem, just the ramblings of a woman who thinks she can write.

If this is an assignment, just write down any random bullshit. It doesn't matter. I am currently in college and I am familiar with high school english classes too. It is always the same story. Most literature should not be "analyzed".

She is trying to hold on to the old while looking to do the new. She feels alienated but identifies with the symbols of her ?alienators. Blah blah blah. Godamn, this sucks.