Is the girl in the snapshot me?
The little girl in the woolen dress
By a broken door in a tiny yard
She's shy and laughing and ready to run
And shielding her eyes from the morning sun
I've forgotten the dress, and the colour of it
I've forgotten who took the photograph
I've forgotten the little girl, three or so
She's someone else now, to be wondered at
With my mother's eyes and my own child's hair
And my brother's smile, but the child who's there ----
The real soul of her -- fled long ago
To the alley-way where she mustn't go
Through the broken door in that tiny yard
Rough men on motorbikes, not to be looked at
Scrawny cats scratching, not to be touched
Down to the railway line, never to go there
Nor up the road where the traffic rushed
Stay closed in the yard with the sun in your eyes
Come and be still for your photograph
I can hear now the drone of those bikes
And the loud dark voices of the men
And the howl of the tomcats on the prowl
I can hear the scream and shush on the train
And the whooshing of traffic on the road
But the summer buzz in that tiny yard
And the child who laughed with her best dress on
And the voice that told her to stand in the sun
And the click that pressed the shutter down
Have gone
As if they had never been.
Here are the steps to read a poem:
Step 1: Forget what the poem may or may not mean, or what it may be about.
Step 2: Look at the title and jot down half a dozen things that it suggests to you. Give literal meaning as well as other associations.
Step 3: Read the poem once quickly and then several times more slowly. Try to hear the poem aloud in your head
Step 4: Make a list of all those things which force their attention on you or which catch your interest for one reason or another. You might jot down unusual/ odd/ striking words, rhymes or repetition/ patterns/ contrasts etc.
Step 5: Look at and list any features of languages used in the poem, eg.
No capital letters; no full stops at all line-end; presence/ absence of adverbs/ adjectives; all verbs are active/ passive; tenses - all past except in the last line, etc.
Step 6: Try to find groups of words ( thematic boxes) eg.
(a) All similes make reference to animals/ death/ plants etc.
(b) All the first words of lines are conjunctions etc
* Don't worry if your group of words seem silly or improbable. Look at what you have observed and ask yourself what is its significance
Step 7: Look at your lists, notes and groups. do you see and pattern taking shape?
Step 8: Read the poem again and try to make intelligent guesses of what the poem may mean
Step 9: Answer the following questions:
(a) Who is 'speaking' the poem? Is it the poet or the persona?
(b) Who is the poem 'spoken'? Is it a particular person, to the poet himself (reflective) or to the public in general?
(c) What is the speaker's attitude towards that audience? Is it angry, sincere, joking or teasing?
(d) what is the speaker's attitude to his audience?
(e) Why is this poem organized in the way it is?
(f) What is the effect of all the things you have noted at steps 2,4,5 and 6?
Step 10: Now if you wish to, or have to ( because of an exam), you can write a critical appreciation of that poem
My Answers:
Step 2: Something small
Something Young
Something that cannot be decided
A number around 3
A age of someone
Something very little
Step 4: snapshot
soul
scrawny
drone
prowl
buzz
click
Step 5: Missing full stops at the end of each sentence
Some dashes in words, possibly a pause
Step 6: (a) scrawny, men
Step 9: (a) It is the poet himself
(b) It is to himself (reflective)
(c) It is sincere and thoughtful
(d) He is rather straightforward in his thinking, making it easier for his audience to understand
(e) It is arranged chronologically
(f) It is what makes a reflective poem, and consists of all the elements of a reflective thought
Finally, What I think of the poem is that it is a reflective thought of the persona the poet has formed and the persona once lived in a poor conditions and in danger. They were probably poor as well as the persona only had one photograph to refer to and the mother was calling her to come for her photograph, which meant that maybe it was such a rare opportunity to have their photo taken that she wasn't willing to let her child run off and play. It also describes briefly where the author stayed, dangerous places with rough men, scrawny cats and also near a city district, as there were busy streets with many cars.
