Photograph of Me

This week, I chose to analyze "this is a photograph oh me" By Margaret Atwood. This poem is perfect for such a gloomy day :)

When I first read this poem, I thought it was interesting that the first line of the poem is in the title:

"this is a photograph of me <--- Title

it was taken some time ago..." <--- First Line

Here, the narrator is reflecting on an old picture of herself. She describes the way the picture itself looks -- saying there are grey flecks, blurred lines, smears ... etc. Margaret Atwood did this to set the reader with the precedent that this photograph is old. It's a photograph taken several years ago, and she just happened to stumble upon it.

In the second stanza, she continues to describe the old photograph and she notices a crack on the side of the picture resembling a tree. A tree is a sign of growth, which could be symbolic towards the fact that since the point when the picture was taken, the narrator has grown -- in all aspects, physically and emotionally.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills

Notice how the narrator completely avoids describing herself for the first three stanzas (and the majority of the poem) which is strange since the title of the poem is "this is a photograph of me"
AND the only part of the poem in which she talks about herself is put into parenthesis.
I think this has to do to show he insecurity and pain the narrator feels.

This poem is seven stanzas long, with no general rhyme scheme. It's told sort of like a story, and it's extremely vivid in imagery. The first two stanzas consist of five and seven lines, but after that, the majority of the stanzas after that, only about two lines vary per stanza. the turning point of the poem is emphasised by the short lines and the start of the parenthesis to the end.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center

of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where

precisely, or to say

how large or small I am:

the effect of water

on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,

eventually

you will be able to see me.)

Not literally, but the narrator drowned in emotions and despair, perhaps. She mentions that she is under the surface of the lake -- again, emphasising the fact that she drowned.

But throughout the whole poem, it's strange that she says that it's a photograph of her, yet she isn't the main point of the poem. In fact, you can hardly see her. Perhaps the narrator has moved on from this point (again, relating back to the tree). Growth is never negative; it is always positive. She no longer feels lost and hidden, and she is reflecting on this point in her life because she stumbled on this old photograph. She's moved on from this point, but she makes sure to still remember it because it was a part of her life.

"It is not length of life, but depth of life."

Ralph Waldo Emerson