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3 XI A Photograph Question Answers

The poem describes a photograph of the poet's mother from her childhood. The photograph was taken during a beach holiday with her cousins. Now, many years later, the poet's mother has been dead for nearly as long as she was alive. The photograph allows the poet to remember her mother's laughter and past happiness, though both their lives now carry a sense of loss and struggle with her mother's death. While the sea in the background of the photograph remains unchanged, human lives are transient and fleeting. The photograph preserves an important memory from the past that would otherwise be lost over time.

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490 views4 pages

3 XI A Photograph Question Answers

The poem describes a photograph of the poet's mother from her childhood. The photograph was taken during a beach holiday with her cousins. Now, many years later, the poet's mother has been dead for nearly as long as she was alive. The photograph allows the poet to remember her mother's laughter and past happiness, though both their lives now carry a sense of loss and struggle with her mother's death. While the sea in the background of the photograph remains unchanged, human lives are transient and fleeting. The photograph preserves an important memory from the past that would otherwise be lost over time.

Uploaded by

sarbani kaur
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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A PHOTOGRAPH

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

1. Now she’s been dead nearly as many years


As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all,
Its silence silences

a. How long has the poet‟s mother been dead?


Ans: The poet‟s mother has been dead for about twelve years.
b. Why is there nothing to say at all?
Ans: There is nothing to say at all because the poet has lost her
mother.
c. What silences the silence?
Ans: The mother‟s death silences the silence.

2. The sea holiday


was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.

a. Who went for the sea holiday in the past?


Ans: The poet‟s mother had gone for the sea holiday in the past when
she was a young girl.
b. What does „both‟ refer to?„
Ans: Both‟ refers to the poet and her mother.
c. How does the poet feel when she remembers her mother?
Ans: The poet experiences great sorrow when she remembers her
mother who left for heavenly abode twelve years ago.

Answer the following in 30-40 words each:


1.Explain, “both wry with the labored ease of loss.”
Answer: The word 'wry' here means disappointment. Both of them are
disappointed and dejected over their loss. „Both‟ here refers to the mother
who had died a while ago and the poet who has lost her mother.
'Labored' conveys that both the poet and her mother were struggling,
trying to cope with their loss. Yet, both realised that the loss was final and
they had to accept it, therefore 'ease'. 'laboured ease of loss' is an
oxymoron, a poetic device where two opposites are used together.

2.Explain the contrast given in the last two lines of the first stanza.
Answer. The contrast is between the sea and the humans. The sea had
remained the same for all these years, but the humans have undergone
changes. Her mother grew up and now she had been dead for the past
twelve years.

3.The poet‟s mother laughed at the snapshot. What does this laugh
indicate?
Answer. The poet‟s mother laughed at the snapshot. This is an indication
of the fun and joy she had experienced during the beach holiday and she
had fond memories of that particular incident. It brought joy to her when
she looked at the snapshot.

4. What has the camera captured?


Answer. The camera has captured some happy moments from the
childhood of the poet‟s mother. It was a scene taken from a beach where
she had gone with her cousins and her uncle for a sea holiday. The girls
were paddling in the water.

5. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to
you?
Answer: The sea has not changed over the years. It suggests the
immortality of the sea as compared to the mortal human beings. Whose life
comes to an end finally.

6. What is the significance of the „cardboard frame?‟


Answer: The cardboard frame or the photograph shows the lack of
permanence of human life.

7. Explain the term „terribly transient feet.‟


Answer: Transient means something which is temporary or short-lived.
Here, when the author says terribly transient feet, she refers to the ever
changing imprints of the feet left on the sea sand. The sea never appears to
change but the human life is transient.

8. Explain „silence silences.‟


Answer: Its “silence silences" means that the death of poet's mother has
silenced her i.e the silence caused due to mother's death has silenced the
poet.

Answer the following questions in about 100-120 words:


1. „Each photograph is a memory.‟ Justify the statement in the light of
the poem.
Answer: Photographs are memories that are captured and kept for lifetime
purposes. The Photograph is a memory for a number of reasons.
Photographs leave behind them memories as old as the day they
are captured. The photograph gets unprecedented/unexpected importance
once the person in the photograph is no more. Since then the person or the
scenery brings back painful memories rather than happy memories.
However happy the person used to be, his memories make us cry.

Shirley Toulson‟s “A Photograph” captures one such moment when her


mother was young and she went on a beach holiday with her cousins.
Gone are these days of the mother and her cousins but the photograph
manages to bring back those memories even after thirty years later. The
laughter of the mother while seeing the photograph has become a past
incident.

The mother had been dead several years, leaving behind the poet only
memories. She has no medium to remember her mother than this
photograph. Although the heavy silence that the pain of losing her mother
descends upon her and silences her, the poet never ceases to look at it. A
photograph has a longer memory than our minds.

The photograph allows the poet to recall and revive the laughter through
the image captured thirty years back. Therefore, photographs are indeed
memories.

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