Margaret+Atwood*

//A Sad Child *//
- The speaker seems to be trying to console a young child who is sad. - Ironic because usually children are portrayed as being happy and high spirited, with only short moments of "sadness" that seem to be superficial. Also, when the speaker suggests remedies for this sadness, he/she recommends visiting a shrink or taking pills, things children do not usually do. - The speaker believes that this sadness is fate and that there is no way to escape it. - Focuses not on one children specifically, but children in general. - The poem ends with the discussion of how death is inevitable and in the end, we all end up in the same place and situation.

//The Moment *//
- The poem goes from the speaker achieving something and then realizing that you will never be able to completely "own" it. In the second stanza the speaker compares his/her achievements to nature, which is one aspect of the universe that is often forgotten about but is always there. - The speaker seems to believe that as long as one is working for something and striving to get somewhere to are apart of the universe, but the second they sit back and enjoy what they have they lose that connection with the world.

//This Is A Photograph Of Me *//
- The title illustrates how the speaker may be stating that the photograph of her, which is who she really is, is quite different than how people see her as. - Even though the title states that it is a photograph of "me", the first few stanzas discuss the condition that the photo is in and then the background. It almost seems as if the person in the photo is inferior to the setting. - When the speaker starts to talk about herself, she places parentheses around the sentences. Parentheses are utilized when one wants to add additional information, which means that if the sentences were to be removed the meaning of the sentences would remain the same. - Could be a possible reflection of not only herself, but the way women are perceived in society. - The speaker seems to say that in order to understand her one has to look "just under the surface" and that everything may not be what it seems. - The message is that not everything is what it seems.

//Variations on the Word Love *//
- The poem is divided into two stanzas, one looking at love as a word and one looking at love as a feeling. - In the first stanza, Atwood seems to be criticizing the usage of the word love as "a word we use to plug holes with" and that because it has been exploited and over-commercialized the real meaning of the word has been lost. - There is a drastic shift of tone from the first stanza to the second. It is evident that she is not bitter towards love itself, but to the over-usage of it. She states that the word "love" isn't enough to express the intensity of the emotions that she feels. - The fact that the poem is a free verse and does not follow a specific pattern is a parallel to how inconsistent love is and how there is nothing predictable about love itself.

//You Take my Hand *//
- Straight off the bat, the speaker utilizes the metaphor of a "bad movie" to describe what their relationship is like. - There seems to be a mixture of emotions coming from the speaker, part of her enjoys the gestures, while another part of her finds it comical. - The contrast between lines (especially in stanza two) demonstrates how she isn't one hundred percent sure on how she feels about this relationship. - The third stanza discusses why she stays until the end, and it almost seems as if she enjoys herself. - The first three stanzas seem to be set in the present, but in the fourth stanza the reader claims that she wishes to get rid of the relationship which is difficult like "smoke". - There is spacing before the last stanza begins which demonstrates her final acceptance of the relationship.