This Is a Photograph of Me

“This is a Photograph of Me” is a poem in two parts: a description of a photograph that portrays a landscape with a lake, and a parenthetical aside that illuminates that description to reveal the position of the “me” from the title. The objective, if indistinct, landscape becomes startlingly personal by the end of the poem due to the information contained within the parentheses, a reality that lurks “under the surface” (Line 18).

The first three stanzas establish what can and cannot be seen in a photograph “taken some time ago” (Line 1). That temporality is not defined by any specific date, year, decade, or century. Its ambiguity is enhanced by the fact that the subject “seems to be / a smeared / print” (Lines 2-4). Both aspects give a sense of physical age and indicate an indistinct image. The photograph seems to be black and white, as the speaker notes it is made up of “blurred lines and grey flecks / blended with the paper” (Lines 4-5). This suggests a faded quality, again making it seem antique or taken with an unsteady hand. The image is nebulous.

The speaker then suggests the viewer “scan [to] see” (Lines 6-7) the fuzzy image.