Margaret Atwood- style

In Margaret Atwood’s short poem, “This is a Photograph of Me”, her style comes across clearly and distinctively as her own. The overall format of the poem seems to go from with the lesser details of the photo s, to the main focus of the picture, then back to another small detail. In the beginning she describes the trees and slope. As the poem goes on, Atwood works her way to the center of the picture, the lake. Then she finishes the piece by adding that the narrator body is under the lake. This makes her poem her own by treating the main point of photo as a small detail. (This seems to be emphasized by the use of the parenthesis around the writing.) There also seems to be a nonchalant and casual flow to the poem in terms of style. It may seem odd for such a heavy and serious subject like death, but Margret Atwood carries this style in her other works as well. Another point to be made about the style of the poem is that the work itself tries to carry detail without actually accomplishing it. For example, in the sentence “a thing that is like a branch” (8 Atwood) the word like show that the object is similar to a branch, but is not one. Also, in “It is difficult to say where precisely, or to say how large or small I am”(20-21) Atwood seems to try and convey details of the body, but the writing comes across as ambiguous. Margret Atwood’s style of writing is certainly one all her own. Though her style might be a bit difficult for a novice or even intermediate writer to achieve, elements of this style can be very useful in many types of papers once learned.

Atwood, Marget. “This is a Photograph of Me”. Academy of American Poets. Sep 05 2010.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16220