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Analysis Of Poem Lines On A Young Lady 's Photograph Album

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In Philip Larkin’s poem “Lines on a Young Lady’s Photograph Album,” a man looks through a woman’s photo album and reflects on the beauty he sees in photography as an art form. He views photography as an art that shows reality in its actual state, rather than creating the ideal image without blemishes or imperfections. The speaker also reflects on his attraction towards the woman pictured in the album as she appears in the various stages of her life. This attraction is not only towards photographs, but also towards the elements of the photographs that show her as a real person, not an ideal image. However, the photographs also bring him pain, for the subject of the photo will always remain in the past, separated from him. The speaker wants the young lady’s photographs to connect with her as she was, with imperfections, but he realizes that he cannot connect to the images on paper, for they are only preserved images. Nevertheless, he finds comfort in her preserved beauty, as it can only belong to her, and not to any other man, including himself.
The poem begins with the speaker’s intense feelings of attraction towards the woman, and in his exploration of the album he expresses a certain possessiveness for the woman and her features. He describes his eye as “[hungering] from pose to pose,” which suggests a need for the woman similar to that of a predator. He also mentions that it is “(faintly disturbing, that, in several ways) - / From every side [the woman strikes] at [his]

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