In W. D. Snodgrass's Poem 'Mementos'

In the poem "Mementos, 1"by W.D. Snodgrass a man finds a picture of a woman he once loved. From the way he describes it by calling it "That picture" (Snodgrass 242, line 1) gives me the idea that it was his favorite picture of her and felt like she was very beautiful in it. The picture seemed to remind him of why he fell in love with her in the first place. He was sorting through things that once meant something to him to see if any of it still mattered like it once did and the picture brought back what started out as good memories. Memories of when they were young and first fell in love. Then he starts to think about where it all went wrong. Thoughts of how they loved each other but the two years he was gone overseas in the war put a strain …show more content…
When he came back from the war they get married and the love they once had for each other after so long begin to fall apart. He describes the circumstances as, "They drained out one another's force, With lies, self-denial, unspoken regret," (Snodgrass 242, lines 16-17). They went through some turbulent times in their marriage that caused it to fall apart and then eventually resulted in them getting a divorce. At the end he reverts all the way back to before he even met her. I feel like he is saying that although he loved her he wishes he hadn't ever met her. In the next motion though, he puts the picture back and saves it. So then that leads me to think maybe its not the pain that has made him feel like he wishes he had never met her, maybe it is because now he realizes that even after all this time he still loves her and hasn't gotten completely over her. It makes sense when he says in the beginning of the poem "Like a man raking piles of dead leaves in his yard, who has turned up a severed hand." (Snodgrass 242, lines 2-3). By that he means while going through his things finding that picture was painful, but he can't seem to part with