This is a Photograph of Me
"This is a photograph of Me" belongs to Margaret Atwood's second collection of poems, The Circle Game [1966]. The poem begins with the description of a photograph of the speaker 'taken some time ago'. Until the middle of the poem, it seems that the speaker is talking fondly about an old photograph of her that had appeared in a newspaper. The poem has a rather unusual structure of verses. The lines are short and each line wraps over to the next one. The diction is simple and befitting the tone of the poem.
Procedures For Underground
'Procedures for Underground" has been taken from the collection of the same name. The poem reveals her commitment to the weak and deprived people of her country. She, however, does not talk about them directly, rather she presents a picture of the world beneath the earth where those who have committed the sin of exploiting the poor are sent. She addresses her readers in a conversational tone to describe this rather strange land where rivers flow in the wrong direction and sun glows in dark confinement.
The Animals In That Country
This poem appears in the collection of the same title. A frequently recurring imagery in the poetry of Margaret Atwood is that of animals. Atwood is conscious that animals abound in American Indian myths and legends, and many tribes took their name from them. In the present poem, Atwood talks about the native country from where the settlers came to colonize Canada. She shows how people there are animal-like but pretend to be human.
The Landlady
This poem is from the collection 'The Animals in that Country'. It is one of the lighter poems of Atwood which presents a humorous picture of a landlady who imposes her person on the tenant. For a tenant, a landlady is often a frightening creature. The poem is built on the same premise. She is obviously a great factor of annoyance in the lodger's life, an impediment to her thoughts so that scholarly work in this house is too difficult.
Spelling
Margaret Atwood's poem 'Spelling' occurs in her collection 'True Stories'. It is one of her feministic poems. It begins with an innocent act; a child playing with the plastic letters of the alphabet. This image is later transformed into an oppressed woman. The poet focuses on her motherhood as she gazes at the childish game of her daughter.
