The Circle Game

“This Is a Photograph of Me” by Margaret Atwood (1964)

“This Is a Photograph of Me” is in the same collection as “The Circle Game,” and both poems include a first-person narrator addressing the theme of “surface versus depth” with heavy subject matter and an occasional light way with words. In this poem, the speaker announces that they are in the photograph, but the observer will not be able to see them right away:

The photograph was taken

the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center

of the picture, just under the surface (Lines 15-18).

“In My Ravines” by Margaret Atwood (1964)

“In My Ravines” is part of the Circle Game collection and, similar to “The Circle Game,” introduces elements of nature and young children playing. This time, the children play with, rather than against, their environment: “small boys climbing / in the leafless trees / or throwing pebbles” (Lines 12-14). Yet, just as the poem suggests comfort in the actions, a sense of horror, similar to the Gothic imagery in “The Circle Game,” appears at the end of the poem, as shown by “bloodred night / falling, bursting purple / as ancient rage” (Lines 32-34).