Dissect a Poem | This is a Photograph of Me by Margaret Atwood
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ย. 2024
- Hello, I’m Jen - I’m the author of the Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops series, The Bookshop Book and The Hungry Ghost Festival. Click ‘Show More’ for more info on this video
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THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF ME: www.poemhunter....
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When reading this poem, I thought there was an extended theme throughout it that suggested that she never stood out in photographs. Everything around her stood out more, and this made me think of people in group photographs and people in a photograph who are almost drowned out by other's presence or appearances. The water is almost a metaphor for someone's external appearance or attitude, and you have to look long and hard enough to see the real person underneath.
+rachel cairns nice ☺️
I am one of those who feel wary about poems. It's a bit like how I feel discussing a painting. Loved this video. For your discussion on the poem and for it being my first Margaret Atwood poem. I know bonkers right, as I love her novels sooooo much. I loved this poem too. I was thinking it was about how we don't always notice the intricate things in the background of life. Then she did that switch. And that hit me. I know that's a bit vague. I thought of soft focus vs high definition like a camera focuses. Then photo development in a dark room and the images coming to the surface of the paper. I then thought of her novel Surfacing. Yes. Vague.
If you ever want a complete novice to show its ok for someone to be a dunce about poems you know who to call ;)
The body never rises above the water - the voice of the poet can be heard, but unlike the branch, doesn't extend into our world. In this sense all we can ever "know" is mediated through an unclear experience into which we invest our own meanings.
Rather than the surprise of suddenly being told the photograph is of the dead person, the thing that struck me so powerfully was the use of parentheses to tell me that - as if this were a throw-away aside. That really stood out. I feel also that the word "ought" might imply that the person drowned by misjudging the steepness of the hill - it ought to have been a gentle rise in the hill, but wasn't! At the same time "ought" seems to forewarn us that things are not as they seem.
Just a few random thoughts on a fascinating poem. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Margaret Attwood's poem.
Wonderful idea for a series! I loved this poem, but I guess I first saw it as a more simplistic metaphor of a person asking to be discovered underneath the shallow surface of appearance, because they already suffered some kind of trauma and since that moment on they have no idea who they are anymore.
One of favourite poems. Should be read in conjunction with her first novel, Surfacing, to cast another light on it.
I have only just started to read poetry again since school which is decades ago, so I am excited to find your channel and for this explanation of poems. Looking forward to watching more!
your work for poetry is so fantastic. i would have come to poetry way more sooner if someone like you had been there when I was growing up. but i am still overjoyed your videos are inhabited the Internet now and showing people that poetry is not scary at all and it is ok to take what one takes.
When I first read the poem I thought of the photograph described in it as really being a photograph of a person, only being so blurred that you can't recognize that person, but that, just like with seeing figures in clouds, you can see a landscape in it.With this, I think you could read „drowning“ as a sort of metaphor for the experience of forgetting oneself or merging with the world around oneself. The intersting thing is that you have this contrast between the wide landscape and the idea of a center - we think of ourselves, of our personal identities as centered, also reflecting concepts of inside vs. Outside, our bodies vs. what surrounds our bodies, we think of our bodies as secure and closed-up (we imagine everything that enters or leaves our bodies, such as blood or excrements as somehow unsettling - Julia Kristeva's ideas about the abject are interesting in this context.) I think the narrator plays with the idea of questioning this concept while at the same time trying to hold on to it. On the one hand, you have the wide landscape that doesn't even seem to fit in the picture - while the branch emerges in its corner, the tree it belongs to is not in the picture. On the other hand, the narrator says you can see them if you look close enough, I am just at the center of the picture. So there is still a sort of center, but at the same time, the subject submerges into the landscape and is hardly noticable anymore. At the same time, we ask ourselves if there really is someone, or if there is just the landscape after all, and the person doesn't even exist anymore.What is also interesting is that the second part of the poem is entirely put into brackets, as though it was just an unimportant detail. This is ironic because when you read it, you immediately notice that it is not unimportant at all, but rather crucial to the poem. I had the idea of a person who is insecure and tries to forget about themselves, or maybe even wishing for them to be dead. Not necessarily dead in a literal sense, but maybe metaphorically. And this also reflects how we see language or what we see in what other people say - do we trust them, do we think what they say is important, or is it just a minor detail put into brackets? Can we really trust someone? Language is, just like our bodies, something very centered, or we imagine it as being centered: centered around conscious subjects being able to understand what it means for words to have meaning in the first place. I also have to think of the symbolic order in this context - the order of signifiers that we are embedded in and that allows us to structure the world according to linguistic differentiations. One of the most basic differentiations - that of „I“ and „Not-I“ seems to be dissolved - or is it?
I loved your ideas too! Loved the video, will definitely watch more of this series :) Greetings from a literature student in Germany!
The line 'what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house' creeped me out a little before we even got to the part where we learned that the narrator was drowned and left under the surface of the lake in the middle of the image. Like the slope should be gentle but, in reality, it is harsh. This slope and small frame house are hiding something hard, something physically harsh.
Thanks so much for your valuable videos. I liked the way the poem continually uses indefinite language -- "it seems", then its "blurred", then you see "a thing that is like a branch" and we don't know what type of tree, and then "what ought to be a gentle slope". Nothing IS, everything just seems like something. The whole poem is suggestive of the impossibility of knowing another person. The title is deceptive--as if you're going to be able to look into the poem and see the author. And then the whole poem leads you away from any certainty. Everything that you see is not quite clear, and the author herself is hidden beneath the surface.
I am super excited about finding this series even though it's quite old. I was linked here from your latest video about annotation. I am someone who feels quite comfortable analyzing and dissecting most literature but I'm terribly intimidated by poetry. I really wanted to challenge myself so I'm actually taking a Poetry and Drama class next semester at my college through their English department. I am hoping that these videos will help get me started! I really liked this poem a lot. I like when authors lure their reader into a false sense of security only to then shock them. I think it's a good literary trick. I'm also a huge fan of Margaret Atwood's novels, so that definitely helps. Thank you for making these!
The first episode is a few years old but they go up to early 2018 :) x
This was so interesting. I had a different interpretation to this poem that was more (a little too?) metaphorical. What I wrote in my notes was that the lake represented the author and that she perhaps has changed. It's kind of like looking at an old childhood picture and thinking upon how different you've become, although you still carry that old, "dead" you somewhere inside.
This series is going to be fun xD It made me remember how back in school we'd read a poem and the teacher would ask us what we think and how the class would give so many different meanings. Once you put a poem out there, your intent and feelings might come across differently to each reader, colored by the reader's different experiences.
Yes this is exactly what I needed to get back into poems. Thank you Jen! So here we go I haven't done this for maybe 20 years. Also I'm from Germany I hope I can put my thoughts down correctly. So in the beginning of the poem she talks about the picture and everything seems blurry, far away and unclear but you get a sense that it is an subjective view, something hard to describe but it seems like she is looking very closely and with her heart. Then it changes into a clearer more detailed view and as we start to get the whole picture she also gets more objective and distanced. She says she is under the water, it almost seems like she is under the photograph or beyond it. The camera or the people looking at her picture are no longer able to capture her in a technical way. The part where she talks about the effect of water on light is a distortion..., I get the feeling she is talking about her own light and the distortion of her soul even and if you look long enough you can eventually see her because she is everywhere. Especially when you look really close with your heart and everything becomes blurry again. That is what I got from it.
I'm starting to develop an interest in poetry but have never really been able to grasp how to truly understand it. Thank you for developing this series Jen and I can't wait to learn so much more. The one thing that stood out for me when reading this poem was, apart from the jolt I got when I realised the author was dead, was how similar to cryptic crosswords poetry seems to be (I'm a bit of a crossword addict although not of cryptic ones).
I love that there is no correct or incorrect interpretation of a piece of art/ a poem/ a story. I was watching (re-watching!) an interview with Junot Diaz earlier, in which he says that "once published, the piece of art is owned by the reader/ viewer" (paraphrased)
love this idea for videos...haven't read a poem in a long time, since university but used to love discussing different ideas in a group back then so happily took up the challenge to try again.
I saw the poem itself as a type of photograph. Something that can be hard to interpret and 'see' like an old photograph. I like the way the poet guided us to look at different parts of the picture and the poem itself. Flowing sentences one into the other like water and the 'branch' that sticks out. The reference to balsam and spruce trees, evergreens, created both an idyllic scene and implies how words can last forever when captured in a poem much like a photograph does too.
I also found the second half quite sinister and in total contrast to the first. The poet referenced frames and used these herself in the poem too.
I felt she wanted the second part to be framed and to stand out ... I saw it as a challenge to the reader to seek out and find the poet within the poem. And acknowledges that this can be different for each reader in the same way water distorts objects lying within them to.
I really enjoyed reading this poem and hearing your thoughts on it and look forward to another video like this x
I enjoy seeing how everyone sees things differently. Individuality can be very beautiful. Thank you for the video.
Thanks a bunch Jen. You made it seem so easy. Please continue this series. The second half did give me an eerie kind of feel, blurring everything that was said before and I felt that the poet was trying to sell that death is the ultimate reality.
"I felt that the poet was trying to sell that death is the ultimate reality." Oooh!
I am a newbie to poetry and am anxious to learn. This is a great teaching tool. I wrote down after reading this "Hey world look at me. I'm dead but you will remember me. This picture will insure you will remember me". I'm staring into the water trying to see her. Thanks for showing me what else to see. 😍
I'm fairly new to poetry after being largely put off it during 'A' level English Literature having to read Hyperion by Keats (iirc) and the poems of Gerard Manly-Hopkins. so 37 years on I'm trying to rediscover it and this is an enormous help. Like when I was at work in the 1980s and we had a bit of an office craze for tackling the daily cryptic crossword in The Times. At first I had absolutely no idea how too approach a cryptic crossword clue, it was like reading a string of words which had no sense of form or meaning whatsoever. It was only after being guided in ways to understand the clue, the subtleties, the devices and the themes contained within it that I actually began to realise how to complete the crossword. And it's a similar thing with poetry. I would often find myself reading a poem and think to myself, 'wow, I'm actually getting this!' then all of a sudden a killer line would appear which tome, had about as much right to be in the poem as a 3 legged donkey in the Grand National. so it is videos like this which are helping me to understand and appreciate poetry for similar reasons to unlocking a cryptic crossword clue. And enjoying the journey very much I am. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I hope you continue to find this series useful x
I love what you do for poetry on TH-cam!
:) xx
amber dawn pullin
I do too. This is my first time but I like it
What I actually got from this poem, was the narrator trying to describe this picture to you, saying you were looking at it quickly, not really paying attention. You're only seeing it surface-level, but when you pay more attention you see the branch, the house, the lake and the hills. The second half of the poem, I got from it the narrator was saying he/she drowned. He/she was depressed. The narrator felt like people were looking at him/her one-dimensionally, never really asking how he/she was or just not caring. I don't know, but that was what I got from it the first time I read it which I think is very special because it's kind of how I used to feel.
My comment just erased itself ahh! so I have to remember what I wrote! Definitely agree with you that its about being noticed. I thought it was also about that fear of your death being more prominent than you're life when you leave this world ( a faint metaphor; everything reaches out in the photo except from the persons self). I think the use of a photograph is very clever because it's a way to encase a memory. How are people going to remember you after you're gone? That's what makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I read this😂 Really excited for this series, I'm not good with poetry analyses but I hope to contribute to the comments as much as possible🙂
That line break in the beginning caught my eye as well. That, and what you said about the line being like a branch in the poem, are excellent examples of what I love about poetry. I continue to marvel at how something like formatting can give so much weight to a single line of text. Wonderful poem, definitely adding this collection to my wishlist! Love the concept of this video and am looking forward to upcoming videos in the series :)
Great series, the question about how I felt about the poem well the poem kind of crept me out in that horror kinda vibe I felt the author was going for. Which leads me to your question about who owns the poem once it is written and I think it is mostly the reader once the author decides to release it the public. Maya Angelou once said, " as soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else." and we all know writing is a healing mechanism. And with poems, there is a lot of reworking that (usually) has to go on (you know rewrite, add favor, rewrite, change an adverb, rewrite 50 more times, etc) and a lot of healing happens within those lines and once someone decides to share it with somebody else, I think they are allowing somebody else to take it, own it (by internalizing it) so they too can heal. I don't know if I'm making any sense.
I can't wait for your next dissect a poem!
Wow, Jen this was brilliant! Thank you. I wasn't very good at poetry analysis in school, but I used to love it when the fog slowly lifted and I could see the poem in a different, new light. That's exactly what just happened today! I'm really looking forward to more videos in this series. Thank you x
+Rhoda K you're welcome! x
Brilliant idea Jen
Hi Jen! I really like your analysis on the poem! Mine is different, so here are my notes:
When I read this poem, I automatically read it in a visual perspective and symbolic representation rather than the importance of paying close attention to literature/poetry (which is super important!)
The photograph represents/symbolizes the capture of the author's emotion. It represents trickery of the human mind on their focus, perception of things in life. Like for example, in the poem when it says that we couldn't see her in the water because the light on the surface is playing a trick on our eyes( the "distortion"), making it difficult for us to notice her in the first place; Also, another hint is at the beginning when it shows that the photograph is old and smeared. It's a test to see how good (or in this case how bad) we pay attention to things- how much we care , or not care.
Then the last line is the most important to me when it says, "...but if you look long enough, eventually, you will see me."The key words here are "long enough" and "eventually." At this point, we are too late in noticing the character's despair and/ or struggles. In this case, the power of concern of others who are willing to look at the "bigger picture", or the more important things (the setting of the photograph was trying to throw us off guard, too!) can make a world of a distance, but unfortunately, we notice these things when it's already too late. This is a reflection of how society focuses on the wrong things, missing the more meaningful details that should be focused on (this is a bit off topic, but pop culture in general is guilty of this very common mistake in terms of popularity vs. the heart and soul of creativity and talent). So, to wrap this whole thing up, the lesson of the poem: Open up your eyes before it's too late, or, Open up your mind a little bit wider.
Yeah... I know this was a long response, but I hope this makes sense. That's what I got from this poem!
I agree about the affect of the poem being written in two halves. I think the fact that the death of the narrator is revealed with the entire second half being in brackets almost invites you to consider the death of the author as less important than trying to observe the picture itself, the nature and serenity. It reminds me of the question you raised about the poet's presence in their work and maybe invites the reader to think similarly?
Jen, This is one of the most creative ideas I have seen on TH-cam. I appreciate that you will introduce me to new (to me) poets, and I will learn so much reading all the comments. Thank you.
I've only just discovered this series and I think it's a great idea. I have always been a bit intimidated by poetry, but this is something I feel that I could have a go at. I love the shift of this poem from serene to sinister. I know this was a photograph, but I felt like the narrator of the poem was doing what some painters do, and that is it place certain landmarks or objects, to encourage your attention in the way that they wanted. So your focus was drawn to the person under the water. Also 'a small frame house' sort of encloses you into the scene too. I don't know why, but the words 'but if you look long enough eventually you will see me.' made me think that the person was waiting to be discovered by someone, possibly the reader. I look forward to watching more of your poetry videos!
I love this idea! I wasn't familiar with this poem, but I thought it was great. Just to add to your point about the poem itself being a kind of photograph, I picked up on some wordplay with the word "scan," referring to the practice of scansion in reading poetry. Pretty clever. :)
Your videos are always so great! I have been finally giving poetry an honest good try- I’m actually reading poetry for dummies 🤣 I think I’m getting the hang of it! Lol I look forward to watching this whole series!
You're so good at putting thoughts into words! I love love love this series. Please make a lot more of these!!! I feel like my eye is not trained to read poetry. Most of the things you said were things I was like "oh! I can see that!", but, just like in the poem, I have to be guided in order to understand. I hope one day I'll be able to make the analysis you seem to make so effortlessly. Thank you!!!
+Ana Furlanetto it's all about practice :) I'm glad you like this video xx
Love this. I am writing a poetry book and returning back to the art form. I like watching videos dealing with that subject.
I love the idea of this series! I also can't believe how much I feel I've learned after just one... Thanks, Jen!!
Yessss! I always live for your poetry videos but this was especially awesome. Thanks for doing such a deep dive. I'm so glad you've started this series.
I am just getting in to poetry (all because of you), and have never taken any classes. I've already learned so much, and hope to be less intimidated by reading poems. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. Thank you:) Maybe one day, with practice, I'll have something worth while to contribute to these talks. For now, I am just going to listen. Thanks for the great video. You're my fave
Yet another series of videos I know I'm going to love.
You're a genius when it comes to finding ideas and themes for new series.
I'm hooked on your channel!
This series is already my favorite thing ever. I am so excited. :D
I was a bit disoriented by this poem at first because of the feeling of being led slowly around a photograph instead of seeing it all at once, but that fits well with the shift towards darkness. I loved the way it is dark but still friendly, although I guess it's supposed to be the other way around ( "ought to be gentle" but actually quite creepy).
A well chosen introductory poem, Jen. You seem like such an excellent ambassador for dear old poesy. You talked about the poem so lucidly and confidently. I don't know why, but I always seem to find videos or recordings of people talking about poems so therapeutic. Deffo want to read some of Atwood's poetry now, it doesn't sound too ossifying either. Eagerly anticipate the rest of the series! ;)
I love the idea of this post and look forward to more in the future. I have this poetry collection somewhere in the house unread, I'll have to dig it out.
I read this poem in a completely different way, I saw it as a poem about grief and the thin line between life and death. When I re-read the first half knowing the end of the poem, I read the tree as life and then this person, now dead, as captured in the framed house - a memory, contained in a box, a life which no longer goes on but is preserved, like the photograph. I saw the brackets in the second half as a more intimate voice, no longer quite so confident, but taking on a reassuring voice, she/he is still present, if looked for, some days more so than others.
I had a feeling that they were talking to someone who was grieving but that they were also grieving what they had become after they had died, 'smeared' and 'blurred'.
That was a bit of a ramble, sorry.
Have you listened to Atwood read the poem? Her slow, precise way of speaking and her accent also give the poem a different feel, but I can't decide what yet, I'll definitely have to listen to it a few more times. th-cam.com/video/TP-3bAM5uTk/w-d-xo.html
From what you said, I don't think that we've read it in a completely different way at all :) x
These are my thoughts that I'm posting before I watch what you have to say. It's more stream-of-consciousness / in the moment thoughts. I liked doing that; it was a nice exercise.
Thoughts:
Immediately has a sense of nostalgia with "it was taken some time ago". “a smeared” is set apart and in the middle of the stanza, as if to frame the words. A melancholy image already. The white space/stanza break after “paper;” makes me think of, well, paper. Second stanza, we’re more interested in the background of the image; why not the focal point? “ought to be a gentle / slope, a small frame house.” That line seems sad as well; it “ought to be…gentle,” but is it? The third stanza is short and ends on “low hills.” Giving us time to breathe before. Yep. Really sad. I’m reminded of the general metaphor, BAD IS DOWN. I get Winter vibes. “blurred lines and grey flecks”, an “emerging” tree. I also notice the drowning is set aside in parentheses. “I am in the lake…just under the surface” imagery. Frightening and sad. Seems to echo “blurred lines and grey” from earlier. The line break after “or to say” is poignant…”It is difficult to say” anything at all. Speechless. “distortion” echoes the “under the surface” and “blurred lines” again. I linger on “eventually,” as if I’m actually looking at this picture, not able to look away. Until I see her. Sad.
Really appreciate this deeper analysis of a poem...... thanks!!
Well done, Jen! So glad you started this series.
yes yes yes I will love this series.
Oh my gosh, I absolutely loved this!!
+Rachel Angelique yey! x
I am a new subscriber, and I LOVE your channel!! And this is such a great idea! I wrote my own notes, but after hearing your thoughts I had these further thoughts. At first, the poem offers a blurry lens, the same feeling I get when approaching a new reading of a poem or other complex work. The narrator's voice becomes more demanding as the poem progresses, demanding to be seen and recognized and the focus becomes sharper. I found it at first odd that the narrator uses contrary language to both pinpoint her presence ("I am ... in the center of the picture"), but at the same time to say the opposite ("It is difficult to say where precisely....I am"). The narrator seems to say simultaneously that the author holds an important place in relation to the work and yet is a diffuse presence. "It is difficult to say...how large or small I am." That existence is below the surface (drowning) or a parenthetical, but it is there. The fact that the author beckons the reader to focus seems to hint that the work needs the reader's attention to exist as much we need the author's guidance to see. Sort of a phenomenological relationship, I think. Brilliant poem!
I haven't touched poetry since school and found the thought intimidating however this series is fab and I hope to step away from my fear to experience it a new xx
I'm very glad I found your channel, I've searching for these kind of poetry videos for long time , thank you :)
I very much see it the same way as Jill Brewer. The first half seems to be addressing the reader/ friend/ acquaintance, who doesn't afford the narrator the attention she desires and probably deserves (the "you see me on a very surface level" aspect). The send half is also addressed to the same reader, but the brackets suggest it's an after-thought, almost narrated with a resigned sigh (the "actually, this is how I really feel" aspect) I feel that the photograph is simply a metaphor for the the writer herself and is not actually depicting a real drowning.
Great video Jen! I am very much looking forward to this series! I really like analyzing and dissecting poems but I find that it can be a bit difficult when you don't have anyone to discuss it with, so I am very excited for this opportunity. I also think it's a bit difficult because I've never really done any of this in school, the only time I remember reading poetry in school was when we read The Waste Land by TS Eliot, and I became slightly obsessed with it because I had never read anything like it before and there was just SO MUCH to dissect. I've never read any of Margaret Atwoods poetry before either, I really think I need to check it out.
Can't wait to see the others. You re triggering in me the desire to read again. Just thanks. From Italy.
Finally! Poetry on TH-cam!
To me (and i haven’t watched the rest of the video yet) this poem kind of said that we are all murky misprints of things seemingly normal with disturbing versions of ourself hidden beneath the surface. She titles it telling the reader very clearly that it is of her and then describes a house and hill and tree making it seem to me that she, as with all of us, is made of more than a body-that a photograph of her is more than a portrait. Maybe that’s a bit vague or cliched but 🤷🏾♀️.
Beautiful poem and the way you described and analized it, wonderful. I read several times. When she is describing herself (let's asume a femine voice) I felt it was not exactly a person, that could have been a bird that fell and drown. Also it's interesting the use of parenthesis ()
The branch extending outside the poem was brilliant!
+Lectito in Spain like a hand reaching out to you, isn't it? :)
Yes! I have been wanting that collection for some time now! Are all poems that good?
+Lectito in Spain not all of 'em (in my opinion) but it's a great collection as it shows her work across the decades from many different books, so you can pinpoint the ones of you like most and go read the rest of that particular book if you want to :)
+Jen Campbell excellent! Thank you Jen!
i LOVE this new series
This is just the thing I need to start getting into poetry. Thanks so much, Jen! This idea is so cool!!
What a wonderful idea for a series! I learnt so much from this video and am already looking forward to the next ones :)
Great video! I found the different layers of narration quite creepy, in that we are being observed - and guided - by the narrator while we look at a photo that we are told contains the narrator's own dead body (although they say "I am in the lake" rather than distancing themselves by saying it's their body, which only makes it more creepy!). But at the same time, especially when we re-read it, we can step back from our 'place' in the poem and observe the narrator talking to the viewer of the photograph... if that makes any sense at all! Maybe I'm getting too meta here ;) x
Hey! I love this video and I'm very much looking forward to the next ones :)
I always love hearing other people's interpretations of things, so here's something I'd like to share:
I thinkt the line "At first it seems to be" suggests that it we're looking at the surface first, but has meaning just under it, which kind of coincides with the subject of the poem being just under the surface of the water.
I also thought about how the grey and smudged part at the begining could reflect the creepy,dead but also sadness of the situation because someone's died
Saving my grade, thank you! (and well put btw)
Woah, I am rusty on the old analysis. Great idea for a video though, I miss being part of these kind of discussions.
Although I didn't make any notes/think about the presence of the writer, I was thinking about the fact that the body isn't actually in the photograph - made me think of how people can be remembered for how they died, rather than their life. The way the photo was described at the start (blurred, grey) made me think of a newspaper article - as if perhaps the narrator had been in an article because they had drowned - and so that photo of the place of their death sums them up/her type of death has overwritten who they were in life/their identity - hence why they are asking people to look deeper.
I have no idea if that makes any sense, but I enjoyed the video!
+Sophie Wallace it does indeed make sense, thank you for your thoughts :) xx
I was wondering what you thought about the choice of words "a thing that is like a" and "what ought to be". They suggest to me either that the writer is looking at a scene that has changed over time since she/he knew it or the tree description suggests that it just looks like a tree but actually might be something more foreboding. Strange as she is definite about the hills and the lake. Thanks for introducing me this poem. Love her books just read The Blind Assassin.
+vacantlots those phrases made me think of someone trying to recall a scene or a memory, struggling to work out what's true. Trying to cling to the physical world x
This is going to be an interesting series! I do not have a lot of experience with poetry. When I read this I got a completely different meaning. I also saw the nature scene and when it abruptly said, "and, to the right, halfway up/ what ought to be a gentle/ slope, a small frame house./" I thought that was peculiar that something "ought" to be something else. When the narrator said they had drowned the day before the picture was taken, to me it meant that they drowned and then come back to the lake. I wondered why they had done that, (I think it would have been scary) so I thought they were facing their fear and gaining courage. So at the end when they said "it is difficult to say... how large or small I am" I saw that as a metaphor for personal growth hahaha. Then I thought perhaps that line about the "house that ought to be a slope" was a metaphor for the response of drowning. It ought to have been fear, but was instead courage (ridgid, sturdy- like a house).
+Jenny PAce interesting. :) I didn't read it as a house replacing something else, I read it as 'if you walk up to the house, the slope ought to be gentle' :) though the 'ought' and 'should be' mentioned throughout made me think of someone trying to recall a scene or a memory, struggling to work out what's true. Trying to cling to the physical world x
I agree the strangest thing to me is the "ought to be". Why not just "a gentle slope"? Those three words can change your reading of the poem to so many directions. No scholar here but love the way people interpret everything slightly different.
It's my first time watching any of your videos and it sure make me want to stick around ;) I love your thoughts on the poem. Poetry can be really intimidating, because at school you're told to analyse it a certain way and not every teacher that you encounter will have the rare ability to talk about poetry in a way that makes you want to listen to them carefully and dive into more poems yourself. You surely have that ability. Pretty creepy choice for a first poem, but I personally really like works that have something dark and twisted to them. Lovely idea for a series
I'm a photographer it's my first frame of though. -It actually isn't clear until later on that it speaks of a photo. It relies on the reader to immediately assume it because we live in times where the photograph is a normal part of life now.
-"The effect of water on light" so, not light reflecting on water, which is what I would expect. Implying that he/she is made of light.
- The poem also implies that photography is an inadequate way of capturing light and the ephemeral.
But if we look hard enough we "will" see...as if to say that it's up to the reader to choose to become the light, or be enlightned-- that only then you will "eventually" be able to see that pure (water) mirrored of light and with it the context of the whole frame/story.
"It actually isn't clear until later on that it speaks of a photo" - it's in the title :)
+Jen Campbell Haha...indeed, I could've been more clear. I mean when I start reading just the poem...skipping the title.
Also, this video was such a great idea. It was fun to do and it's lovely to read other peoples thoughts on it land I'm rooting for more of these videos in the future.
+Inka Leoni that's an interesting look at why titles are important. A lot of the time, when I teach poetry, my students don't put much thought into a title but you can change the whole feel/meaning of a poem with the title :)
I always forget to pay attention to the title. I should, it's rather important. So i started with just the first line and thought, is she dead?? So i was confused by the nature imagery and the mention of a photograph ( because i didn't read the title). Anyway, love love love this series!!! Just came from watching you and Lauren's wonderful dissection of Dimensions.
It's interesting how many times readers skip over the title - and it can change the whole reading of a poem. I've been know to do it myself, too. x
+Jen Campbell *known
I don't read it as though the narrator is literally dead/drowned. The first part of the poem I read as "at first (in life) my own personality is hard to destinguish because I haven't developed fully yet".
It goes on to describing what appears when "the photograph" develops, and focuses on the outskirts of the photograph - the surroundings - and then casually mentions that the lake is in the background. We then discover that the narrator is in the lake, drowned. But the lake isn't even, at first glance, the main feature of the picture - as if the narrator puts themselves in the background of their own life/narrative. The diminishing of themselves makes the narrator "drown", and thus "invisible" to the reader/other people, and it will take determiation and patience for someone to actually see the narrator, drag them out of "the lake" and into focus of their own life.
But that may of course be the totally wrong way of reading it. I don't really understand poetry.
The way I dissected is that the poem is a photograph that I'm trying to develop in a darkroom. How in the first stanza it's as if it's smeared and turning out to be a beautiful nature photography. And slowly as the photograph is being bathe in chemicals is how it's a literal drowning of the photograph. And as the poem talks about emerging it translates to an actual photograph almost being developed but it's not turning out to be this crisp imagery but instead of something quite distorted, free to be interpreted and yet painting a picture of still sadness; quite like this poem.
Love from India...It's really ver difficult to understand the motive of writing the poem...I get that this is actually about the human personality and appearance. It's about the identity of a person which is beneath the person. It's as difficult as to understand a person truly 🙂
Love this Jen! X
I thought of Marian McAlpin when I read it, among other things.
This poem is accessible to the ordinary reader like me. Some poetry is very difficult on first reading and that can be off putting. I am not put off by a first reading of this poem and therefore I can begin to look for layers of meaning intended by the author or otherwise.
thnkx.....for ur explanation......
now m ready for my examanition
I really loved how you approach poetry.. It will be kind if you to recommend me a book about how to read (analyze) poetry starting by basics because English is my third language and I need to learn how to approach it as natives like you do .
+Meriem DJELLABI I don't have a book recommendation, but it's through practice that you learn how to do this - and if you do these exercises with me, watch the videos and read the comments below, then you'll get better at it :)
+Jen Campbell actually your video is veryy helpful and I I will exercise on the poetry choices in your wrap ups videos.. thank you so much for what you do for literature ❤❤
Hello Jen, I liked what you said, it added to some of my reading. But is there also a wider overall reading? It seems to me that the whole poem could also be a metaphor for how little we are able to see of one another if we just look at the face/body of another person and how much more emerges if we look long enough at the person behind the exterior features/below the surface. Thank you for this forum, Jennie
You can certainly read it that way ☺️
Thanks! I really enjoyed this (:
brilliant! x
Yes, the author is almost blaming the reader, as through it is our careless lack of attention, or lack of depth, that is responsible for her death. it may be a figurative death, a spiritual or emotional death brought on by loneliness and caused by the shallowness of the photographer/reader/viewer/friend/acquaintance.... How often do we overlook the cries for help from the people around us? But the beauty of this poem is that the work is alive, and still asking to be seen. You will see - we will all see - if we look hard enough. Lets look.
❤️👏
Can you use the same analytical techniques for non academic reviews? How much detail do you have to go into?
It would never have occurred to me do your forensic analysis. The first few lines makes me wonder was the print from a scratched up old negative and maybe the image was blurred because of camera shake. Being lead from a tree branch lower left seems an unnatural vantage point. Then maybe a difficulty facing what is now gone - maybe just a humble life in the small frame house. Overall it made me think of presence as an after image. That's all I got. Could I ask what makes this poetry and not like micro prose or something?
It's poetry - in free verse form with line breaks :)
I think this is a feminist poem. female authors didnt get any recognition of their of works in past." effect of water on light is a distortion"- means the distortion of patriarchal society which they inflicted upon women poet on that time. Their existence has been denied in the world of lit.But the work an artist never dies.it eventually gets its recognition. The ending i think i quite optimistic..
Is Atwood describing Depression? Like the 'slope' is about her struggle to cope, the natural ups and downs that occur and the house just stays their trying to keep it all together.. The past experience are "just under the surface" Or not! I'm god awful at interrupting poetry.
+Samantha Walls you can definitely read it this way :)