This poem was also created by the one...the only...Richard Blanco! I’m so glad that I am still able to write about his fascinating work. It is fun to decipher his poems like an intricate puzzle with infinite possible solutions, but only one reveals the true picture it was meant to display. I hope to get as close to Blanco’s true meaning as possible, but only he knows the real reason he writes these poems. This particular poem is about the passing of time in more ways than one. He describes the way things physically change in the world around us, but also in the way we change as a society.
The first thing I notice is the poem’s structure. It is rather short compared to Blanco’s other poems, but looks can be quite deceiving. I also notice that he didn’t split the poem into stanzas either, giving it a more unified effect. It is his way of telling a story that flows well enough for the reader to get this message. The title itself is pretty straight forward. The “Photo of a Man on Sunset Drive” part indicates the subject Blanco is discussing, the “1914” indicates the year the photo was taken, and the “2008” indicates the year Blanco was comparing the picture to. There is a lot of time between those years, so there is bound to be many physical and mental change to compare the times to. Blanco first describes the picture in detailed imagery. He mentions a shack by a dirt road with “crates of avocados and limes, white chickens” and a “man under the shadow of his straw hat.” The reader gets a sense for the time period back in the early 1900s. Life seems so simple back then when we compare it to what we deal with today. Blanco realizes that this man in the photo would never see the products of the future. He wouldn't see “streetlights” or buildings that rise “taller than the palm trees.” As the poem comes to an end, the point of view shifts to first person. Blanco knows that the man from 1914 will never see him “trying to read his mind across time.” It seems to make Blanco quite solemn. My favorite line is the last few when he says, “both of us, looking down the road that will stretch on, for years after I too disappear into a photo.” He realizes that he too will be stamped into a certain time period, only being known by a picture hanging on a wall.
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