The year during which Lee's poem is set is not given, nor is it important, for the poem expresses ideas and evokes emotions that are timeless. Lee's publication of Rose in 1986 was part of a tidal wave of literature published by Asian- American writers during the 1980s. This tidal wave, however, began as a ripple during the 1970s with the publication of three anthologies, Asian- American Authors (1972), Asian-American Heritage (1974), and Aiiieeeee! (1975). These anthologies, however, include work mostly by male Chinese and Japanese Americans. The popularity of Chinese-American Maxine Hong Kingston's novel The Woman Warrior in 1978 sparked increased interest in Asian-American women writers, which blossomed in the 1980s with works such as Filipina-American Jessica Hagedorn's Pet Food and Tropical Apparitions, which received the American Book Award in 1981, Chinese-American Cathy Song's lyrical and haunting first collection of poems, Picture Bride, which received the Yale Series...