My Father’s Martial Art

Stephen Shu-ning Liu

When he came home Mother said he looked

like a monk and stank of green fungus.

At the fireside he told us about life

at the monastery: his rock pillow,

5his cold bath, his steel-bar lifting

and his wood-chopping. He didn’t see

a woman for three winters, on Mountain O Mei.

“My Master was both light and heavy.

He skipped over treetops like a squirrel.

10Once he stood on a chair, one foot tied

to a rope. We four pulled; we couldn’t

move him a bit. His kicks could split

a cedar’s trunk.”

I saw Father break into a pumpkin

15with his fingers. I saw him drop a hawk

with bamboo arrows. He rose before dawn, filled

our backyard with a harsh sound hah, hah, hah:

there was his Black Dragon Sweep, his Crane Stand,

his Mantis Walk, his Tiger Leap, his Cobra Coil…

20Infrequently he taught me tricks and made me

fight the best of all the village boys.

From a busy street I brood over high cliffs

on O Mei, where my father and his Master sit:

shadows spread across their faces as the smog

25between us deepens into a funeral pyre.

But don’t retreat into night, my father.

Come down from the cliffs. Come

with a single Black Dragon Sweep and hush

this oncoming traffic with your hah, hah, hah.

(1982)

Since There’s No Help

Michael Drayton

Since there’s no help, come, let us kiss and part,—

Nay, I have done, you get no more from me;

And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,

That thus so cleanly I myself can free;

5Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,

And when we meet at any time again,

Be it not seen in either of our brows

That we one jot of former love retain.

Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,

10When his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,

When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,

And Innocence is closing up his eyes,—

Now if thou would’st, when all have given him over,

From death to life thou migh’st him yet recover.

(1619)

· Compose a New Criticism analysis of “My Father’s Martial Art,” by Stephen Shu-ning Liu (p. 64-65). Use the appropriate vocabulary suggested for this critical theory. You must use excerpts from the text and appropriate theoretical critics to support your claims.

· Compose a Reader-Response analysis of “Since There’s No Help,” by Michael Drayton (p. 98). Use the appropriate vocabulary suggested for this critical theory. You must use excerpts from the text and appropriate theoretical critics to support your claims.

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