Fifth grade autobiography poem

Former poet laureate Rita Dove’s “Fifth Grade Autobiography” is a lyrical recollection of a memory from early childhood. The presence of a family photograph inspires the memory, and the imagined school assignment of the title frames the poem as an autobiography of the speaker.

The poem first appeared in Dove’s fourth collection, 1989’s Grace Notes.

Though not as well-known as other poems such as “Thomas and Beulah” and “Adolescence I,” “Adolescence II,” and “Adolescence III,” “Fifth Grade Autobiography” contains similar themes of family and remembrance. The poem plays with notions of time as the speaker presents the poem as a recollection from fifth grade, while also relating the emotions in the poem to a time period beyond the photograph.

In particular, “Fifth Grade Autobiography” crystallizes a memory of the speaker’s grandfather, who has died.

Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. An avid reader even as a child, she credits her