Poem Reading Response

In Russia during the year 1921, there was a terrible drought that caused pain and suffering to millions of people. Many of those people died from starvation or from severe dehydration due to the lack of water. The speaker in the poem Photograph Of the Girl wants the reader to understand how the drought affects the girl, and how there is hope at the end of the poem.

One way the girl in the poem is affected by the drought is by going through severe starvation. The poem explains how she was starving and isn’t supposed to live much longer. “The caption says she is going to starve to death that winter with millions of others.” This quote shows that by the drought taking place, crops aren’t able to grow, causing her to starve. This is why she has become very thin, and why her bones have grown very fragile. In the poem it says, “Each day she grows thinner, and her bones grow thinner, porous.” Here, the speaker is also explaining how the drought is affecting the girl’s body.

From the girl and her family being in poverty, they were affected most by the drought. Since they didn’t have any health care, they also lacked the financial means to live through it. It was unfortunate though that they had to suffer. “She leans on a sack, layers of clothes fluttering in the heat.” In this stanza the speaker is showing how she has to wear all of her clothes at all times, as if she is always carrying her baggage with her. This quotes also shows how she has given up on trying to live, and is accepting her terrible fate. The speaker uses a simile to show hope for the girl at the end of the poem. “Deep in her body her ovaries let out her first eggs, golden as drops of rain. This quote shows that the poem isn’t hopeless, and that the girl may survive the drought. The speaker compares getting her period to rain. They are both essential in the poem because now she is able to give life, and that is just as important as water.

Reading Photograph Of The Girl, reminds readers that in other countries not everyone is as lucky as we are. The poem also shows readers that during a bad situation you should never lose hope.