"This Is a Photograph of Me", by Margaret Atwood

Picture of Death In the poem "This Is a Photograph of Me", Margaret Atwood attempts to depict the parallels between a picture slowly developing and the narrators realization of her death. This poem is divided into two parts with the second half separated by brackets. The elements of the picture begin to emerge reflecting the narrator's awareness of her death. In the first stanza it is as if the speaker is trying to remember fuzzy …

…on past memories, which is very different than how it is depicted in the photograph. We are asked to search long and hard, so we may see past our distorted vision, to discover what actually lies below the surface. "This Is a Photograph of Me" becomes a desperate search for identity. Works Cited Atwood, Margaret. "This Is a Photograph of Me." Literature Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. DiYanni, Robert 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002. 1047