Fifth Grade Autobiography

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1989

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Passage of Time

“Fifth Grade Autobiography” is the speaker’s reflection on both a picture taken when they were four as well as a representation of a slightly older version of the speaker as a fifth grader. As a result, the poem begins with a meditation on the passing of time summed up in the final lines of the poem: “He smelled of lemons. He’s died— / but I remember his hands” (Lines 21-22). The poem is written in the present tense to emphasize the immediacy of the memories brought on by the photograph, but this is not the present tense of the adult speaker; it is the present tense of their younger, fifth grade self.

The most interesting shift in this poem, in terms of time, occurs in Stanza 3, when the speaker introduces an additional time frame. Before this shift, readers must distinguish between the fifth-grade speaker and the four-year-old speaker on the day of the fishing trip. Now, readers accompany the speaker on a memory from the day before, during a ride on horseback. The contrast between the brother, who “rode his first horse, alone” (Line 18) and the speaker, who “was strapped in a basket / behind my grandfather” (Lines 19-20) explains both the reason for the four-year-old’s jealousy toward their brother and establishes his position as the older sibling. The poet implies the four-year-old speaker’s place in the family pecking order thanks to the introduction of this third time period.

The speaker quickly returns to present tense for the poem’s final line, “but I remember his hands” (Line 22), implying that what matters to the speaker now is not the petty jealousy they had for their brother but the fact that they shared a moment with their grandfather that belongs to them alone, in the guise of a memory.

Family

Another important theme of “Fifth Grade Autobiography” concerns the importance of family and the emotional relationships between various members of the speaker’s family. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker introduces their grandparents and then their brother in the following line. Each of the three members receives at least half a stanza’s worth of attention.

The grandfather’s significance to the speaker is clear in Stanza 2, when the speaker illustrates the bond between grandfather and grandchild. The speaker explains that “I used to wrap” (Line 10) his tobacco “for him / every Christmas” (Lines 10-11). This phrase contains subtle bragging from a young child who is proud of the responsibility they bear in preparing the grandfather’s Christmas gift.

The speaker’s grandmother is also important to the speaker as she tends to the group in the photograph with such dedication that she cannot remain still even long enough for a photograph to be taken. The speaker’s awareness of their grandmother comes across clearly in Stanza 2: “Grandmother’s hips / bulge from the brush, / she’s leaning into the ice chest” (Lines 12-14).

Despite the speaker’s youth, they demonstrate in Stanza 3 that they are aware that all is not always well among their family members. The speaker’s envy of their brother is exacerbated by their position, “strapped in a basket / behind my grandfather” (Lines 18-19). Though, at the time of the photograph, this position may have felt insulting or embarrassing for the younger child, in retrospect, from her fifth-grade perspective, the speaker values this moment with their grandfather.

Memory

The image of the family photograph reveals the theme of memory as the speaker takes special care to describe the four people in the picture and their activities. The speaker describes their poses and dress as well as the thoughts that the event in the photograph elicits for the young speaker, both at the time of the photograph and in retrospect.

The introduction of the emotion of jealousy in Stanza 3 gives the reader insight into the speaker’s emotional memory while it also leaves readers wondering about the speaker’s brother’s memory of the photograph as no two people remember a single moment in the same way. Perhaps the brother would have highlighted his own role in more detail, with chagrin at his positioning “in poison ivy” (Line 3) and with pride at having ridden a horse by himself the previous day.

No matter how different each family member’s interpretation of memory may be, the speaker makes it clear that this photograph may be an heirloom for their family. The photograph captures an image of one member of the family who has died by the time of the poem’s writing, which may explain the care the speaker takes in detailing every element of the photograph.