DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, HYDERABAD

APRIL 2020
TEXTBOOK: HORNBILL
PROSE- A PHOTOGRAPH- By Shirley Toulson
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Summary
The poem, “A Photograph” is composed in blank verse. Its title is very much appropriate as it

reminds the poet of her mother. A photograph is something that captures a certain moment of

someone's life. The person might change in course of time but the memories attached with

the photograph are eternal. In this poem, the poet’s mother is no more but the photograph

makes her memories come alive. The mother’s sweet face or her cousins heavily dressed up

for the beach have all changed with time but the moment captured in the photograph still

gives happiness to the poet’s mother when she views it thirty to forty years later. The poet

reminisces that the sea holiday was the past of her mother and for her the laughter of her

mother is past now. Both the moments of life have been permanently etched in the poet’s

mind with a feeling of eternal loss. Death now has overpowered the innocence of these

moments and the pleasure they treasured. The poet concludes the poem on a melancholy note

with the comment that there is nothing to say or comment upon this sad event. The silences

seem to silence all the other thoughts.

Figures of speech/ Poetic Devices

Rhyming scheme- Blank verse – No rhyming scheme but has meter (fixed length of verse)

Irony - Cardboard (This cardboard helps in keeping the photograph of the 12-year-old girl
safely intact who herself was of transient nature, and is no more.)

Alliteration- Terribly transient, Stood still, Through their

Oxymoron- Laboured ease (opposite meaning)

Repetition- Silence silences

Paradox- The line 'It's silence silences' is a contradictory statement as silence itself refers to the
act of being silent.

Personification- It’s Silence silences. It’s refer to Death and Death has been bestowed with the
human quality of silence.
Question Answers-
1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Ans: In the poem, ‚Photograph‛, the word ‘cardboard’ denotes a particular photograph of
poet’s mother of her childhood.
When the photograph was captured, poet’s mother was twelve years old. At that moment, she
went to sea- beach to enjoy her vacation with her cousins.
The word ‚cardboard‛ has been used here to describe the old photograph of the poet’s mother.

2. What has the camera captured?

Ans: The camera has captured the photo of the three girls, who were paddling on the sea
beach. Among the three girls, one is the poet’s mother and her age was 12 years when that
particular photograph was captured. The other two girls are her cousins Betty and Dolly. All
the three girls were holding each other’s hands and smiling at the uncle while posing for the
photograph.

3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Ans: It is the sea which has not changed over the years. Here, ‚Sea‛ represents the nature. It
suggests that nature has not changed over the period of time. But human life has changed
with the passage of time. The poet, Shirley Toulson wants to convey that nature is permanent.
But human life is transient. It doesn’t exist for a long time.

4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Ans: the poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot because she recalled her cherished childhood
days. She felt very pleased recalling her sweet memories from her childhood. However, she
also felt sad. She knew that she could never get back to those days again. Thus, she only tried
to regain her childhood through the snapshot. The poet’s mother also felt nostalgic while
looking at the snapshot.

5. What is the meaning of the line ‚Both wry with the laboured ease of loss‛.
Ans: In the photo, the mother has a carefree smile. But that has changed with age and
responsibilities. She can’t have the moments of being blithe and enjoyment she once
experienced as a child. She had lost her childhood innocence, joyful spirit and the exuberance
to life. The smile is now hiding a lot of pain and is thus wry, cynical and dry. The author too is
hiding a lot of pain as she tries to hide the pain of losing her mother. Thus both their smiles
are laboured as they have both come to terms with their loss.

6. What does this ‚circumstance ‚refer to?

Ans: The circumstance refers to the conditions of the poet Shirley Toulson after the death of
her mother. The poet's mother has left this eternal world forever. She can't see her mother due
to her demise. She can never witness her mother's beautiful smile. She misses her mother as
well as her angelic face. She knows that she can never enjoy her mother's presence.
7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
The poem ‚Photograph‛ exhibits three different phases of human life. The first stanza describes
the childhood days. In this stanza, it is seen that the poet sees a particular photograph of her
mother. There are three girls in the photograph and among the three girls one is the poet's
mother and the other two are her cousins. They went to sea to enjoy their holiday.
The second stanza depicts the adult stage of human life. Here the poet's mother saw her own
childhood through the snapshot. At that moment she missed those days tremendously. She
was aware that she could never get it back again.
The third stage describes the demise of human life. The poet's mother has taken a leave from
this eternal world. Shirley Toulson misses her greatly.
Through this way Shirely Toulson successfully depicts the three most important stages of
human life cycle- the childhood, adult and then the death.

Extra questions and answers

8. How does the poet react to her mother’s death?

Ans: She feels a heavy sense of loss towards her mother’s death. She feels nostalgic and misses
her mother’s angelic smile. She quotes in the poem that an unknown silence has filled her life.
She keeps recollecting those moments when her mother’s lips would turn into a smile while
looking at the snap taken at the beach during her childhood.
She compares this situation to the natural world. It has been years since her mother’s death. So
many changes took place in her life. Yet the sea-beach remains the same. The only way she can
stay close to her mother is through the memories she saves in her heart.

9. ‚ Washed their terribly transient feet‛ What does the word transient name in the above
line?
Ans: The word transient means ‘lasting for a short time’. The poet uses this in the above line,
to indicate that humans are mortal, they are impermanent.
The poet wants to convey that even after even after so many years, the sea beach remained the
same, it did not undergo any kind of change but the person who visited the beach is no more
directing towards the death of her mother. Thus Shirley Toulson uses the transient to
emphasise on this fact that in this everlasting world, we are just a small part of it, not lasting
for long time.

10. Does this poem depict a sense of nostalgia?

Ans: The poet ‘A photograph’ penned by Shirley Toulson depicts a sense of nostalgia. It was
written as a memory to poet’s mother. The very theme of this phone represents a sense of
nostalgia. She looks back at her childhood days with nostalgia and recollects her innocent joys.
Looking at the picture years later brings in her mind the fond memories. She laughs at the
way they were dressed up for the beach holiday. The photograph brings tears to her eyes
because now her mother is no more in this world.
Reference to context questions- (Solved)
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 poets mother been dead?
Ans: The poets mother has been dead for about twelve years.
b. What is the meaning of the word 'circumstance' in the poem?
Ans: The word 'circumstance' in the poem means the death of the poets mother.
c. Why is there nothing to say at all?
Ans: There is nothing to say at all because the poet has lost her mother and her beautiful smile
forever.
d. What silences the silence?
Ans: The silence of the death silences the silence.

ATTEMPT THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR NOTE BOOK

1. The cardboard shows me how it was When the two girl cousins went paddling Each
one holding one of my mother’s hands, And she the big girl- some twelve years or so.
a. What does the cardboard refer to?
b. Who was the big girl and how old was she?
c. What does the phrase- How it was- mean?

2. All three stood still to smile through their hair: At the uncle with the camera, A sweet
face, My mother’s, that was before I was born.
a. Who does ‘all three’ refer to here?
b. What does ‘sweet face’ signify?
c. Why did they smile through their hair

3. And the sea, which appears to have changed less, Washed their terribly transient feet.
a. What has stood the onslaught of time and what has not?
b. Identify the Figure of speech in ‘Terribly Transient.
c. Explain the phrase- Washed their terribly transient feet.

4. The sea holiday was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry with the laboured ease of
loss.

a. Who does ‘her’ refer to? What are the two ‘Pasts’ mentioned here?
b. Find a word from the above lines that means ‘sardonic’.
c. Explain – Both wry…………. ease of loss.