Family Album
Diane Thiel
I like old photographs of relatives
in black and white, their faces set like stone.
They knew this was serious business.
My favorite album is the one that's filled
with people none of us can even name.
I find the recent ones more difficult.
I wonder, now, if anyone remembers
how fiercely I refused even to stand
beside him for this picture — how I shrank
back from his hand and found the other side.
Forever now, for future family,
we will be framed like this, although no one
will wonder at the way we are arranged.
No one will ever wonder, since we'll be
forever smiling there — our mouths all teeth.
The poem describes and record the event
of the author looking back at old photo albums, which are in black and white.
The message of the poem is that the author is trying to say that he dislikes his father, even for a family occasion such as taking a family photo, he refuses to stand beside him, and now that his father is dad, he regrets not cherishing him. The message of the poem is to tell us to treasure family members around us before they are gone from us forever, because when they are gone, they will never be coming back to you.
The predominant mood of
this poem is the author feeling guilty as he looked back when his family took
the photo. The mood did not change during the course of the poem, and the
author intended to evoke a sense of guiltiness to the readers by not
understanding his father and not wishing to take a photo with him.
The poem is structured in
the way, the first stanza is a reverie, the second stanza is something that
happened recently, while the last stanza is something which is the future. Each
stanza contains five lines.
The language is appropriate
to the theme and subject. The language causes the readers to feel guilty,
that's the main effect. And it also causes readers to cherish their loved ones
even more after reading.
There's the metaphor, “we
will be framed like this" ,suggests they are taken as a photo, and it will
always remain there and will never vanish. The effect on the reader is that it
will never disappear or vanish.
The poem is just plain, and does not have any special sound nor does it sound musical. The poem does not rhyme and the poem creates a better image of what is happening to the readers.
The impact of the whole poem on me is that the we must cherish our loved ones, and learn from the author's mistake. He does not like to take pictures with his father and now when he's father is gone, he started to miss him, but it's already to late. It would be too late for regrets. This poem is successful as it taught readers to cherish family members. It successfully created the poet's purpose.
Analysis by: Liu Sirui(26) 2/3
There is a good attempt at giving an overview to your analysis. You have also tried to use as much of the SPECS-SLIMS approach as possible.
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