In W. D. Snodgrass's "Mementos, 1", we are taken through a wide range of emotions sparked by the speaker's memories of a lost love when he stumbles upon her photograph taken when they had first met. The speaker reminisces about his journey through life with this woman as well as her image. He appears at times to be talking to the memory of this former love, as well as this traveled and forgotten photograph.
             The poem begins with the speaker sifting through his "old Canceled checks, old clippings and yellow note cards/ That meant something once"(1-3). These are pieces of his past, which are useless, yet kept, perhaps in a dusty drawer- long forgotten. He reacts with horror when among the pieces of his flotsam; he discovers the photograph of his former wife and love. "Your picture. That picture."(4) The level of his shock and horror at his discovery is evidenced by his description of himself as "a man raking piles of dead leaves in his yard/ Who has turned up a severed hand". It is more than clear that this love did not end well.
             Suddenly his tone softens, as this is not any photograph, but that photograph of his love, which was taken when they had first met, when things were simpler. His shock turns to a sense of gladness at the find and the rush of memories. This photo is the last vestige of a time when their love burned hot with youth and vitality. He remembers her fondly as she had stood, "shy, delicate, slender,/ in that long gown of green lace netting and daisies".(8) He appears comforted by the innocence and beauty of their romance at its birth. As a younger man, all of their "needs were different . . . and [their] ideals came easy". (11-12)
             His tone changes again, as he remembers the photograph itself, and their journey together through war. He remembers how he carried it through those years as a talisman to ward off the fear
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