Malaysian Literature
Ah-MahShirley Geok-Lin Lim
Shirley Geok-Lin LimBorn in Malacca, Malaysia in 1944
Educated at a Catholic convent school under the British colonial education
She won a federal scholarship at the University of Malaya, then at the age of 24, went to graduate school and afterwards received her Ph.D. in English and American Literature
Her first poetry collection, Crossing the Peninsula and other Poems, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1980 making her the first woman and the first Asian to receive the award.
Shirley Geok-Lin LimShe is currently a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Shirley also taught in Singapore and in Hong Kong as well.
Areas of interest: Asian-American cultural productions, post-colonial literature, ethnic and feminist writing and creative writing
Overview of the Poem
"Ah Mah" is a poem about the author’s grandmother. The author, Lim, describes her grandmother in detail and explains how her grandfather "bought" her grandmother. Lim describes her grandmother as a very small and thin woman (10-11). She gives the impression that her grandmother had a hard life even though it appears that the family had enough money.
This poem contains many references to Chinese culture that are very interesting and inspire curiosity. By researching the culture of China, one can better understand the references to it in "Ah Mah." Then, the poem has more meaning to the reader than if he did not posses any knowledge about Chinese culture.
Literary Devices
Grandmother was smaller than
Me at eight. Had she
Been child forever?
Helpless, hopeless, chin sharp
As a knuckle, fan face
Hardly half-opened, not a scrap
Of fat anywhere; she tottered
In black silk, leaning on
Handmaids on two tortured
Fins. At sixty, his sons all
Married, grandfather bought her
Soochow flower song girl.
Every bone in her feet
Had been broken, bound tighter
Than any neighbor’s sweet
Daughters. Ten toes and instep
Curled inwards, yellow petals
Of chrysanthemum, wrapped
In gold cloth. He bought the young
Face, small knobby breasts
He swore he’d not dress in sarong
Of maternity. Each night
Literary Devices
He held her feet in his palms
Like lotus in the tight
Hollow of celestial lakes.
In his calloused flesh, her
Weightless soles, cool and slack
Clenched in his stranger’s lever
Symbolism
Silk & Soochow flower song girl - wealth
Tortured fins - bound feet
Yellow petals of chrysanthemum - bound feet
PERSONAL INSIGHTS
Reported by: Mary Grace AscutiaJustine Leonard Salvador
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