SELF PORTRAIT

-AK RAMANUJAN
I resemble everyone

But myself, and sometimes see

in shop- windows

despite the well-knownlaws

of optics,

the portrait of a stranger,

date unknown,

often signed in a corner

by my father.

The poem ‘Self Portrait’ is a very simple poem of AK Ramanujan. This poem based on the issue
of identity. The poet can resemble everyone in the world with him. He sees everyone in him. But
he cannot see or cannot find himself. Here we can see the identity crisis of the poet as he is not
able to find his identity. His own identity or individuality seems to be lost.

Sometimes he sees himself in shop-windows. Though he sees himself in shop-windows, he can’t

recognize himself, he sees only a stranger in him whom he does not know at all. He refers
himself as a “portrait of a stranger”. He is unable to recognize his real self in the reflection and
so he sees the mirror image of “a stranger”.

The laws of optics refer to the refraction and reflection. Though he knows the laws of optics, he
sees the portrait of a stranger. The poet is unable to find his identity till yet. He has an identity
which is not created by him, but this identity has come to him from his father.