Often labeled a poet of memory, Li-young Lee, an Asian American, utilizes both the power and insufficiency of memory to discover his origins. Lee's reliance on memory illustrates its capacity to achieve the mythic depth necessary to define himself and the reader. But, within the Euro-centric American tradition, does Lee's work reflect only Asian American culture? Studies show that Lee not only belongs to the American tradition, but that his poetry, in its preoccupation with memory and the loss of origin, epitomizes it. Critics often limit Lee's poetry to a purely Asian American reading, as Lee's poetry often attempts to recover his Chinese heritage. Yet critics fail to realize that Lee's heritage is redefined or even lost in his status as second-generation Asian American. This redefinition and loss are symptoms of American culture, which is predominately immigrant. Immigration, in fact, led to the possibility of America's finding its origins in a collective and somewhat invented European mind in the first place. It is in this manner that Lee, as an immigrant, can similarly participate in the American tradition. Indeed, the key factor in Lee's capacity to be traditional is exactly the way in which he utilizes memory to combat the nihilistic threat present in memory's own potential to be lost. Lee's poetry suggests that the American tradition is not bound to any single originating culture. Instead, this tradition is a search for origin arriving at the conclusion that all Americans, and in fact all people, share a universal and divine origin.