For all the poem’s bluster about seeking an “imagined, not recalled” art (Line 4), it doesn’t stray thematically far from an interest in representational poetry—and representational art in general. Even when the speaker first reflects on his struggle, he represents himself to himself by recalling his own words, writing “I hear the noise of my own voice” (Line 5). More generally speaking, the poem wrestles with the gap between “the threadbare /…snapshot” (Lines 9, 10) on the one hand and Vermeer’s “grace of accuracy” (Line 16) on the other. Lowell desires to create a poetry that represents his own experiences the way a master painter does, not in the manner of a casual photograph.

Lowell’s poem identifies a problem with representation, where the documenting of “fact” can “paralyse[ ] [sic]” the development of the artwork (Line 13). The speaker fears his own representational art may simply group together insignificant everyday experiences, creating only a “lurid, rapid, garish” (Line 11) “snapshot” (Line 10). Lowell’s speaker aspires to avoid this type of cheap “snapshot” (Line 10) representation by tempering his accuracy with grace, which he does by ensuring that his representation “trembles to caress the light” (Line 7).