This is a Photograph of Me

I chose This Is a Photograph of Me by Margaret Atwood because there was so much poignancy and emotion flowing through the words. Every line painted a picture for you. The description of the blurred image carries you piece by piece describing this photograph and then a bomb is dropped when the young woman informs you that the picture was of the day that she drowned to death. She is not actually in the picture that was taken laying in the bottom of the lake. The photograph is her being. Every aspect of that picture, of the lake and the hills is her. While reading this poem I got chills throughout my body because the words and the story was just so moving. Another way that I analyzed this poem was that she felt as though she was all alone in the world and felt invisible. Her mentioning her presence in the photograph made me feel as though she felt unnoticed in a beautiful setting. The feeling of being alone in a crowded room can happen and it's the worst feeling ever. Sometimes you can feel invisible and you slowly die inside. The wisdom that is left lingering is why she decided to kill herself if she actually did.