A Photograph By Shirley Toulson – Summary, Explanation, Analysis and Solved Questions | Class 11 English Hornbill | CBSE / JK BOSE

A Photograph By Shirley Toulson

Introduction: When you look at an old photograph it brings back memories of past events, experiences, joys, sorrows, etc. People become older with the passage of time, they might become unrecognisable due to wrinkles, posture or greying hair. You may laugh at the photograph nostalgically, remembering the past events. You may remember the smile on the loved person’s face and may laugh with a tinge of sadness that the past cannot be re-lived. The memories may produce great sadness in you. You may have an acute sense of loss. But the reality is that time is a great healer. Although the sense of loss (on the death of one’s near and dear, ages ago) may never go away completely but with time one has to accept the eventuality, mortality and lack of permanence of human life. You have to come to terms with the loss of your dear departed ones, and you have to accept the inevitable. The past memories can leave you silent, dazed as the silence in the photograph. But nature will always be there and remain unaltered with the passage of time. Nature is immortal and eternal. The sea will be there where it is, the mountain will be there where it is. Nature symbolises permanence, immortality and eternity. Human life will be ephemeral in nature and temporary and nothing can erase this naked fact.

Summary of A Photograph

The poem, “A Photograph” is written in free verse by Shirley Toulson. Nostalgically recollecting fond memories, the poet looks at a very old snapshot of her mother, who is no more. The poet is consumed with sorrow, but there are no words left to express the loss.

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The poet starts the poem by looking at an old photograph of her mother when she was twelve years old. The poet’s mother is photographed with her two girl cousins, each holding one of her hands, in a cardboard frame. She was the eldest of the three siblings and had a “sweet” appearance. On an occasion when they went paddling, all three girls stand still, laughing with their hair falling on their faces, to be photographed by their uncle’s camera. Their ‘transient’ feet were washed by the sea, which appeared to have remained unchanged. The everlasting sea stands in stark contrast to this picture of transience.

Twenty or thirty years later, the poet’s mother laughed at the picture pointing how she, Betty and Dolly (the two cousins) were made to dress for a beach holiday. The sea holiday was a thing of the past for her mother at that time, although her mother’s laughter is the poet’s past. Both indicate their respective losses and the suffering involved in the recollection of the past.

The poet has little left to tell about the present ‘circumstance.’ She is absorbed in the memory of her dead mother. The excruciating ‘silence’ of the situation leaves the poet silent, without any words to describe his sorrow. Thus, the ‘silence’ silences her.

Title

The title photograph is very much appropriate as it reminds the poet of her mother. A photograph is something that captures a certain snapshot of someone’s life. The person may change in course of time however the recollections connected with the photograph are endless. In this poem, the poet’s mother is no more but the photograph brings back her memories of her.

The mother’s sweet face or her cousins vigorously dressed up for the beach have all changed with time but the minutes captured in the photograph still offers satisfaction to the poet’s mother when she sees it thirty to forty years after later.
The poet looks at the cardboard on which there is a photographic of three girls. The bigger and oldest one in the middle and two younger and shorter ones at each side of her. The girl in the middle is the mother of the poet, and the poet speculates that when the picture was taken, her mother must have been about twelve years old. The other two girls are two cousins from her mother.

All three of them stood still shoulder to shoulder to smile at the camera through their long wet hair, the picture of which was taken by the uncle holding it. The mother had a sweet and pleasant smile before her child(the poet) was born into this world. The sea in which they were paddling; which did not seem to have changed; washed their terribly transient wet feet.

Poetic Devices


Allusion

An Allusion is a reference or an incidental mention of something; either directly or by implication.

An example of an allusion from ‘A Photograph’ is the cardboard (photograph) itself. The durability of the cardboard shows the lack of permanence of human life.

Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the initial letter (generally a consonant) of several words marking the stressed syllables in a line of poetry. ‘stood still to smile’ is an example of alliteration from the poem.

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Transferred Epithet

A transferred epithet is a description that refers to a character or event but is used to describe a different situation or character. ‘Transient feet’ is a transferred epithet in the poem, ‘A Photograph.’ It refers to the human feet but it is used to describe the lack of permanence of human life. The sea is constant and eternal while the human feet which are being washed away by the sea are transient.


Model Explanations


Lines 1 – 4:

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.

The poet describes looking through a photo album in these lines, the pages of which appear to be made of cardboard. She looks at a specific photo. It is a picture of three girls the tallest and oldest one in the middle and two younger and shorter ones at each side of her. The girl in the middle is the mother of the poet, and the poet speculates that when the picture was taken, her mother must have been about twelve years old. The other two girls are two cousins from her mother. Each of the cousins holds on to one of the hands for support from the older girl. The photo was drawn on a beach on the day when the three girls had visited there for paddling.

Lines 5 – 9:

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 and the sea, which appears to have changed less Washed their terribly transient feet.

The poet further discusses in these lines the circumstances under which her mother and her mother’s cousins were photographed. The poet claims the uncle of her mother was the one who took the photo. He had asked the three girls, and so they had, to pose for him. They had left their moist hair open and a portion of their faces were darkened by their hair. One could see that they were smiling into the camera through the hair film covering their mouths. One face in the picture, however, draws the attention of the poet to a greater extent than the other two faces. She’s focusing on the face of her mother, and she says the face was a sweet one.

The poet also claims the photo was taken long before she was born. Naturally, since the time the photograph was taken, the face of her mother had changed since then. By comparison, the ocean on the beach where the photo was taken had altered to a lower degree. That very ocean washed the poet’s mother’s feet and her two younger cousins the day the photo was taken. The poet calls those feet “terribly transient” as all the girls in that photograph stopped being so young and since then have grown up. Their childhood did not last long.

Lines 10 – 13:

Some twenty-thirty- years later
She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty
And Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they
Dressed us for the beach.” The sea holiday

The poet stops looking at the photo in these lines and recalls what her mother said about the photograph. Whether it was twenty years after the photograph was taken or thirty years after it, the poet is not sure, but she recalls her mother telling her to look at how the cousins, called Betty and Dolly, looked at that young age. The mother of the poet also told her to see how her parents dressed them up for a beach trip. Maybe there was the plan to take the photo all along.

Lines 14-15

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

The poet claims in these lines that her mother used to see the photograph as an inroad to the past she left behind. The poet herself, on the other side, saw her mother’s memory laughing as a relic of the past that she missed every day. The memories of the past made the two females contemplating them feel disappointed in both instances as they tried hard to come up with what they had lost.

Lines 16 – 19:

Now she has been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance There is nothing to say at all, Its silence silences.

In these lines, the poet says that for the past twelve years her mother has been dead, that is, the same number of years that her mother’s age was in the photograph she had been looking at. The poet can believe in the death of her mother, but she has no words to explain how she has been influenced by death. She was also left speechless by the fact that death silenced her mother.

USE OF OXYMORON IN THE POEM ‘A PHOTOGRAPH’

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that contradicts or appears to contradict itself. Examples often given are “gigantic shrimp” or “controlled chaos.” Some are literary effects intended to produce a paradox, while others are made for humour. The poem “A Photograph” contains the oxymoron “laboured ease,” which in the context of loss may mean avoiding the public display of grief.

QUESTION AND ANSWER

1. Comment on the tone of the poem.
Ans. The tone of the poem is that of sorrow. The whole poem passes through the lament of the loss of something close and dear. Shirley Toulson looks at her mother’s old photograph and is reminded of her mother who is no longer. She recalls the time when her mother was twelve years old and looked nice and happy.

2. What is the significance of the ‘cardboard frame?’
Ans. The cardboard frame or picture shows the transience of human life. Although the sense of loss (on the death of one’s near and dear, ages ago) may never go away completely but with time one has to accept the eventuality, mortality and lack of permanence of human life. You have to come to terms with the loss of your dear departed ones, and you have to accept the inevitable. The past memories can leave you silent, dazed as the silence in the photograph. Hence, human life is ephemeral in nature and temporary and nothing can erase this naked fact.

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3. What emotions does the poet’s mother have when she looks at the photograph?
Ans. The mother feels nostalgic looking at her bygone years. She laughs out loud and tells her daughter how her cousins had heavily dressed up for the beach. She recollects those days when she was innocent, youthful and playful.

4. What is silence and how has it silenced the poet?
Ans. There is nothing to say because the poet has lost her mother and her lovely smile forever. She is left without words. The poet’s mother’s death has silenced the poet.

5. ‘Each photograph is a memory.’ Justify the statement in light of the poem.

Ans. Photographs are memories for lifetime purposes that are captured and retained. “A Photograph” by Shirley Toulson captures one such time when her mother was young and she and her cousins had gone on a beach holiday. Mother and her cousins are gone these days, but even after thirty years later the photograph succeeds in bringing those memories back. The mother’s laughter as she watched the photograph became a past incident. But the photograph enables the poet, through the picture captured thirty years ago, to recall and revive the laughter. Photographs are therefore memories of bygone days.

6. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Ans. The cardboard is a very hard and stuff paper. It is a part of a photo frame that keeps the picture intact. In her poem,’ The Photograph,’ the poet has ironically used it. This cardboard helps to keep the photograph of the 12-year-old girl safely intact who herself was of a temporary nature.

7. What has the camera captured?

Ans. The camera had captured a phonograph of the three young ladies. One of them was the pretty face of the poet’s mother who was a young lady of twelve around that time. The other two were the smiling faces of the two cousins- Betty and Dolly. They hold the hands of the mother of the poet.

8. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Ans. Nature has not changed over the years. It symbolizes eternity, immortality and permanence. Human life is temporary and ephemeral in nature, and nothing can erase this bare reality. In the poem, we see only the sea has not changed. The pretty faces and the feet of the three young girls have greatly changed with time.

9. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Ans. The poet’s mother laughed at the photo taken years earlier. She and her two little cousins stood holding each other’s hand in the photograph. She laughed at them all because she found it so hilarious that they had dressed up heavily for the beach. They might have looked funny to her. Their laughter showed the spirit of youth.

10. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”
Ans. Both the mother and the poet experienced a great feeling of loss. The mother lost the innocence of her childhood and the youthful spirit captured by the photograph a few years ago. The poet, on the other side, has lost her mother’s smile, which has become a thing of the past. She also lost her mother later.

11. What does “this circumstance” refer to?
Ans. The’ circumstance’ here relates to the death of the poet’s mother. Her deceased mother’s photograph makes the poet nostalgic and brings sad emotions from the past. But the poet has nothing to say about the circumstance because death is inescapable.

12. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Ans. The first stanza demonstrates the mother of the poet as a woman of twelve with a beautiful smiling face. Then she paddles on a beach with her two cousins girls. All of them have a happy youthful laugh. This is before the birth of the poet. The second phase depicts the middle-aged mother laughing at her own long-recorded snapshot. The third phase portrays her mother’s death silence on the poet’s face.

Short Questions

STANZA – 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’ show the poet?

Ans: The’ cardboard’ displays the scene with three women on the sea beach to the poet.
b. Why did the two girl cousins hold one of the poet’s mother’s hands?
Ans: As the poet’s mother was the big girl,’ that is, the eldest of the three girls so the brothers of the two girls hold one of her hands.
c. How old was the oldest girl among the three cousins?
Ans: Among the three cousins, the oldest girl was some twelve years old.
d. How did the girls go to the sea beach?
Ans: The girls went to the sea beach ‘paddling’. It means walked barefooted in the shallow water.

STANZA – 2

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. What is the meaning of the word ‘circumstance’ in the poem?

Ans: The word ‘circumstance’ in the poem means the death of the poet’s mother.
c. Why is there nothing to say at all?

Ans: The poet has lost her mother and her beautiful smile forever. Therefore there is nothing to say at all.
d. What silences the silence?
Ans: The silence of the death silences the silence.
Q. Write answers of the following questions in about 40 words each: (2 marks each)

a. Describe the three girls as they pose for the photograph?

Ans: The three girls came to the sea beach to be photographed by their uncle. The older cousins held the elder cousin’s hands. They smiled through their hair as they stood still for a photograph.

b. Why would the poet’s mother laugh at the snapshot?

Ans: The poet’s mother would laugh at the snapshot because she found it so hilarious that they had dressed up heavily for the beach. It revived her memories of bygone happy days on the sea beach and the amusing way in which they were dressed for the beach.

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c. What are the losses of the poet’s mother and the poet?

Ans: The poet’s mother’s loss is of her old happy days on the sea beach while the loss of the poet is the beautiful smile of her mother as she is now dead.

d. The entire poem runs through the lament of loss of something near and dear. Which feeling is presented prominently here?

Ans: The nostalgic feeling is presented prominently in the poem.

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ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

Question 1.

What significant event is highlighted regarding the poet’s mother in the poem

The poem “A Photograph” by Shirley Toulson highlights a significant event regarding the poet’s mother. In the poem, the poet recalls memories of her mother by looking at a childhood photograph where her mother is depicted as being around twelve years old. The poet’s mother passed away twelve years prior to the poem’s composition, leading the poet to experience a profound sense of grief and loss as she reflects on her mother’s absence.

Question 2.

What memories does the poet associate with the photograph of her mother in the poem ?

In the poem, the poet vividly connects the photograph of her mother with cherished memories from her childhood. When the poet was around twelve years old, the picture captured a moment of her mother with her cousins, Betty and Dolly, at the beach during a holiday. The poet fondly remembers how her mother would laugh when reminiscing about the photo, recalling the time when their parents dressed them up for the beach outing. These recollections of the beach holiday and her mother’s infectious laughter hold a special place in the poet’s heart. However, as the poet reflects on the photograph, it also serves as a poignant reminder of the passing of time and the loss of those moments, as the poet’s mother has been gone for as many years as the poet’s age in the photo. This realization evokes a profound sense of sorrow and longing in the poet, knowing that those cherished moments with her mother can never be relived.

Question 3.

How does the poet describe the photograph of her mother in the poem ?

The poet portrays the photograph of her mother in the poem as a heartfelt homage. The image captures her mother at the age of around twelve, alongside her two cousins, Betty and Dolly, during a beach outing. The middle girl, who is the tallest and oldest of the three, is the poet’s mother. The photograph, which is framed in cardboard, showcases a tender moment frozen in time. The poet is captivated by her mother’s expression, noting the innocence and fleeting youthfulness evident on her face. The visual of the sea gently lapping at her mother’s feet serves as a poignant symbol of the passage of time, highlighting the inevitable changes that have occurred while the constant sea remains unaltered.

More Insights

Question 1.

What does the poet’s mother’s laugh at the snapshot indicate about her feelings and memories?

Sub-Questions

How does the mother’s laughter reflect her realization that those days will not return?

The mother’s laughter reflects her awareness that the days of innocence and joy captured in the snapshot are gone, emphasizing the bittersweet realization that time has passed and those moments cannot be recreated.

What emotions are conveyed through the mother’s laughter, including both nostalgia and pain?

The mother’s laughter indicates a sense of nostalgia for the past and the happy memories associated with it, but also conveys a feeling of pain knowing that those cherished moments cannot be relived.

How does the poet’s mother feel about the past memories and the innocence of those days?

The poet’s mother feels a mix of emotions when she laughs at the snapshot, reflecting on the innocence and joy of the past while also acknowledging that those days are now gone.

What memories are recalled by the poet’s mother when she laughs at the snapshot?

The poet’s mother recalls her favorite past memories of how their parents would dress them up for the beach holiday, evoking feelings of nostalgia and innocence.

Full Answer Combined

In these lines, the poet stops looking at the photo and recalls what her mother said about the photograph. Whether it was twenty years after the photograph was taken or thirty years after it, the poet is not sure, but she recalls her mother telling her to look at how the cousins, called Betty and Dolly, looked at that young age. The mother of the poet also told her to see how her parents dressed them up for a beach trip. Maybe there was the plan to take the photo all along. Reflecting on her mother’s words, the poet senses a hidden depth to her mother’s laughter at the snapshot. The laughter seems to hold within it a mix of fond reminiscence and wistful longing for the bygone days, hinting at a well of emotions beneath the surface that the poet is just beginning to grasp.<

Question 2.

What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

Sub-Questions

Why was the word ‘cardboard’ chosen to describe the frame of the photograph in the poem?

The word ‘cardboard’ was chosen to depict the tangible support of the photograph, emphasizing its physicality and connection to past memories captured in the image.

What historical context or significance does the use of ‘cardboard’ as a photo frame have within the poem?

‘Cardboard’ is used in the poem to represent an older photograph when cardboard was commonly used as a frame, suggesting the passage of time and the nostalgia associated with old memories.

How does the word ‘cardboard’ relate to the physical support of the photograph in the poem?

The word ‘cardboard’ in the poem signifies the frame that supports the photograph, indicating its physical form and structure.

Full Answer Combined

“In the poem, the word ‘cardboard’ denotes the scene captured in the photograph of the poet’s mother with her two girl cousins on the sea beach. This word has been used to symbolize the tangible representation of a past memory, frozen in time on a physical medium, evoking nostalgia and reminiscence in the poet. Additionally, the choice of ‘cardboard’ as the material for the photo frame highlights the historical context of the photograph, suggesting that it was taken during a time when cardboard frames were commonly used to preserve precious memories. This dual significance enriches the reader’s understanding of the poem by emphasizing both the symbolic and practical aspects of ‘cardboard’ within the narrative.”<

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