Mementos, 1

In the poem’s opening lines, the speaker describes how he has been busy sorting through piles of old mementos. These mementos range from the commonplace and ordinary, such as the piles of “old / Canceled checks” (Lines 1-2) and “old clippings” (Line 2), to items that are more personal in nature, such as his “letters” (Line 1) and “yellow note cards / That meant something once” (Lines 2-3). In alluding to how the personal items “meant something once” (Line 3), the speaker introduces one of the poem’s key thematic preoccupations: the gulf between past and present and how the power of memory can overcome that gulf, albeit momentarily (See: Themes). As he sorts through the mementos, the speaker comes across one particular item that is more arresting than the others. He describes it as “Your picture. That picture” (Line 4) and admits to the powerful—and even jarring—effect the discovery has upon him: “I stopped there cold / Like a man raking piles of dead leaves in his yard / Who has turned up a severed hand” (Lines 4-6). The imagery comparing the discovery of the photograph to that of someone discovering “a severed hand” (Line 6) while raking leaves creates a moment of tension, suggesting this photograph may be of something unpleasant or that it carries deeply unpleasant connotations for the speaker.