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A Photograph

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42 views3 pages

A Photograph

Uploaded by

piyush16125
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

Summary

In this poem “A Photograph” Shirley Toulson remembers her mother while looking at her
childhood photograph when her mother was twelve years old or so. She died twelve years ago
and the poetess can not explain her grief over her mother’s loss. She has described three
different moods in three stanzas. The poetess is looking at an old cardboard snapshot of her
mother along with her two cousins Betty and Dolly. The photograph was taken when she was
twelve years old. She was the tallest of the three and they were younger than her. They went
for a sea holiday. The three girls were happily smiling through their locks to the uncle who was
taking their photograph. The poetess felt that her mother had a sweet face before she was born.
The sea touched their terribly transient feet. The mother had grown older but the sea remained
unchanged.
After twenty or 30 years, mother would laugh at the photograph and tell the poetess to look at
the photograph of how they had been dressed for the sea holiday. The sea holiday was the
mother’s favourite past and her laugh was the poetess’ memory and both can not be experienced
again. The poetess mother had been deceased twelve years ago, the same age her mother was in
the photograph. Whenever the poetess remembers her mother she has no words to describe her
pain.
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1) What does the word 'cardboard ' denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Answer: The word 'cardboard’ suggests a very stiff cardboard. Here the cardboard is a part of
the frame that keeps the photograph intact. Its use in the poem is ironical. It keeps the
photograph of that twelve-year-old girl safe who herself was “terribly transient”. She had died
years ago. But the sea is unchanged.
2) What has the camera captured?
Answer: The camera has captured all the three girls when they had gone for sea holiday. It has
captured the pretty face of the poetess’ mother who was twelve year old. The camera has
captured the smiling faces of two girl cousins Betty and Dolly. They were holding the hands of
the poetess’ mother in their hands.
3) What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Answer: The sea has not changed over the years. It brings out the ‘transient' nature of man when
compared to nature and its elements. Time spares none. The pretty faces and the feet of the three
girls are 'terribly transient' and they had grown older when compared to the unchangeable sea.
4) The poetess’ mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Answer: The poetess’ mother laughed at the snapshot that was taken years ago. In the
photograph she as well as her girl cousins stood at the beach. She laughed at the way all of them
were dressed up for the beach. Perhaps they looked funny in their swimming dresses. Her laugh
indicates that she was very happy to remember her childhood memories.
5) What is the meaning of the line "Both wry with the laboured ease of the loss"?
Answer: Both the Poetess’ mother and the Poet suffer a sense of loss. The mother has lost her
childhood memory and experience of her past. For the Poetess the smile of her mother has
become a thing of the past. Ironically, both suffer to bear this loss with ease.
6) What does "the circumstance" refer to?
Answer: 'This circumstance' refers to the death of the poet's mother. The photograph of the dead
mother brings sad feelings in the poetess. But she has nothing to say at all about this
circumstance.
7) The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Answer: In the first stanza the poetess’ mother is shown as a twelve year old girl with a pretty
and laughing face. There she went paddling with two girl cousins. This phase is before the
poetess birth. The second phase describes the middle aged mother laughing at her own
photograph. The third phase describes the agony of silence that the death of the mother has left
in her life.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. What has the camera captured?


Ans An old photograph of the poet’s mother which was posted on cardboard makes the poet to
recollect the past memories of her mother’s childhood. The photograph has depicted the poet’s
mother’s pleasant moments when she had gone for a sea holiday with her two girl cousins Betty
and Dolly. The photograph shows that the poet’s mother was twelve years and Betty and Dolly
younger to her and all the three were walking in shallow water with bare feet.
The two girls standing on each side of the poet’s mother’s side were holding her hands. All the
three girls were smiling through their hair and looking at the uncle who was standing there with
a camera.
2. The three stanzas of ‘A Photograph’ depict three different phases. Explain.
Ans : The poet Shirley Toulson has written the poem in three stanzas. In the first stanza the poet
looks at the cardboard frame of an old photograph which showed two girl cousins holding the
hand of the poet’s mother when they had gone for a beach holiday. The poet’s mother was about
twelve years or so and the other two were younger to her. They stood at the beach smiling to the
uncle through hair when he was taking their photograph.
The second stanza the poet describes the event after twenty or thirty years since that photograph
had been taken. In this stanza Toulson says that whenever her mother looked at the photograph,
she would laugh and said that how Betty and Dolly were dressed up for the beach holiday. The
sea holiday had become the past of the poet’s mother. The sweet laughter of the mother had
become the poet’s past. Both the mother and the poet suffered from a sense of loss. Here the
poet has ironically said that both of them were laboring to case the loss.
In the third stanza the poet says that her mother has been dead nearly as many as she had lived.
She also says that she has nothing to say about that incident. The poet says that the photograph is
silent and leaves her silent as well. So, the last stanza explains the poet’s adulthood when she is
not with her mother.

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