"Fifth Grade Autobiography" by Rita Dove Poem Analysis

I was four in this photograph fishing
with my grandparents at a lake in Michigan.
My brother squats in poison ivy.
His Davy Crockett cap
sits squared on his head so the raccoon tail
flounces down the back of his sailor suit.

My grandfather sits to the far right
in a folding chair,
and I know his left hand is on
the tobacco in his pants pocket
because I used to wrap it for him
every Christmas. Grandmother's hips
bulge from the brush, she's leaning
into the ice chest, sun through the trees
printing her dress with soft
luminous paws.

I am staring jealously at my brother
the day before he rode his first horse, alone.
I was strapped in a basket
behing my grandfather.
He smelled of lemons. He's died----

but I remember his hands.

This poem by Rita Dove, paints a picture in my head of a photograph that was probably in the the narrator's fifth grade autobiography. I conclude that the picture is from her fifth grade autobiography because, of course, the title, and also because she states that she "was four when this picture was taken." This poem gives me a sense that the girl was flipping through her fifth grade autobiography and she sees a photo that brings back memories and these memories were put in poem format to capture the memory's strength or beauty. That is really what all poetry does though, capture the beauty of a memory through words that placed and chosen as beautifully as the picture they create. I think that this poem succeeds at capturing the picture more beautifully than just typing a paragraph about it because of the caesuras that put an emphasis on the last words of the line and because of the last line, about her grandfather's hands.

I have always believed that people's hands all have unique character that resembles their own. It has been said that people's hands tell a lot about that person. By saying that she will remember his hands is a savory way to say that she will always remember him. I have noticed that poems tend to make their last line allusive rather than direct. Poets want the reader to ponder longer about their works. Another things that I thought was smart to do was how she personified the shadow of the trees on her grandmothers dress as cat-like, saying that it had printed her dress "with soft luminous paws". Whenever I read this, I thought of a cat lovingly nursing on her dress. This to me, adds to the feeling of warm memories. I get a vibe that everything was alright because it is really laid back. There are no words that can be connected to anything bad (or anything evil) besides poison ivy and the death of her grandfather. Overall, I think Rita Dove does a great job on planting her childhood memories into the reader's head.