This Is a Photograph of Me

The “smeared / print” (Lines 3-4) suggests the lack of clarity of the titular photograph, emphasizing The Hidden Subjectivity of Objective Truth. What happened to the speaker is “blurred” (Line 4) like the “lines and grey flecks” (Line 4) of the photographic image. Thus the indistinct quality of the photo becomes a metaphor for the lack of clarity of the viewer’s vision. The use of the word “smeared” (Line 3) is also evocative. It could mean the photograph was printed with a lack of care, taken by a person in motion that would distort the lens, or tainted by some later substance (water, Vaseline, oil). But to “smear” someone also means to damage the reputation of a person. By being erased from the landscape, the speaker has been smeared into nonexistence. The idea of an external force raises the question of who took the photograph on the same day that the speaker drowned—positing that something happened to the speaker against their will.

Another detail of significance is that the rise on which the “small frame house” (Line 12) rests “ought to be a gentle / slope” (Lines 11-12). This shows that the residence, which might normally be construed as a place of shelter and safety, is difficult to get to.