A PHOTOGRAPH.pdf

A Photograph by Shirley Toulson SYNOPSIS- A photograph describes 3 stages. In the first stage, the photograph shows the poet's mother standing at the each enjoying her holiday with her two girl cousins. She was 12 or so at that time. The second stage takes us twent...

A Photograph by Shirley Toulson SYNOPSIS- A photograph describes 3 stages. In the first stage, the photograph shows the poet's mother standing at the each enjoying her holiday with her two girl cousins. She was 12 or so at that time. The second stage takes us twenty or thirty years later. The mother would laugh at the way she and her cousins Betty and Dolly were dressed up for each holiday. In the third stage, the poet remembers the mother with a heavy heart. The photograph revives a nostalgic feeling in the poet. STANZA WISE SUMMARY- 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 says that she happens to look at an old photograph of her mother which has a cardboard frame. In the photo there are three people, two of them are cousins of the poet and the third one is her mother. They had gone for paddling (swimming). In the photo both cousins have held poet mother’s hands. Poet calls her mother as big girl. who was approximately twelve years old then. 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. According to the poet, all three (poet’s mother and her two cousins) were standing still to smile through their hair. The phrase “smiling through their hair” symbolises their joy on the beach. The were smiling so wildly that even their hair were waving in the air. They were all looking at the uncle who was holding a camera to take their picture. The poet is mesmerised by the sweet face of her young mother during the time when she (poet) was not born. In other words, the poet says that her mother was beautiful during her youth. In the next line, the poet says that the sea which has not changed over the years was washing their transient (short lived) feet terribly. This line is symbolic. The poet is comparing the sea with her mother. According to her, the sea has remains as is throughout the years. However her mother grew old and changed a lot. 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 was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry With the laboured ease of loss In this stanza, the poet thinks of a later time i.e. around 20-30 years after the photo was taken and when her mother grew old. The poet and her mother were looking at the same photo. While seeing the photo, poet’s mother laughs and asks her daughter (the poet) to see how Betty and Dolly (poet’s cousins) and how they all were dressed for beach. Again this movement (with her mother) is a past memory for the poet. Now the poet comes to present time. According to her, the sea holiday was the sweet memory of her mother while her (mother’s) laughter (described above) is poet’s memory because she (her mother) is no more. In other words, like her mother was thinking of her youth joys while seeing the photo, the poet thinks of her mother while seeing the same photo. According to the poet, both she and her mother wry with the laboured ease of loss. In other words, both laugh while memorising something which they enjoyed a lot and both have lost. Laboured ease of loss refers to our acceptance of loss after great sorrow and living with it. “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.” According to the poet, her mother is dead for as many years as her mother’s age in he photo i.e. 12 years. And now, she is so sorrowful over the loss (of her mother) that she cannot express it. After seeing the photo and remembering all those events and joy, there is absolute silence on the face of the poet because of grief. QUESTION-ANSWERS- Question 1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used? Answer: The word ‘cardboard’ in the poem refers to the photograph of the poet’s mother enjoying a sea-holiday with her two cousins when she was twelve years old. The cardboard stands for the frame that supports and holds the photograph. It signifies that life is transient and what remains is an insignificant piece of paper. Question 2. What has the camera captured? Answer: The camera has captured some happy childhood moments of the poet’s mother when she has gone for a sea holiday with her two cousins Dolly and Betty. The girls were paddling in the water and enjoying the moment. The photograph clicked by the mother’s uncle shows the girls’ innocent smiling faces while their hair was flying over their faces. Question 3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you? Answer: Time has moved on, but what has not changed over the years is the sea. It is immortal. It appears to be the same today as it looked in the old photograph. It suggests the eternity of the sea. It also brings out the transient nature of man when compared to nature and its objects. The pretty faces and the feet of the three girls are ‘terribly transient’ or mortal when compared to the unchangeable and immortal sea. Question 4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate? Answer: The poet’s mother was a girl of twelve or so when the photograph was taken. The photograph has captured the smiling face of the poet’s mother. She laughed in nostalgia at the snapshot that was taken years ago and also at the way all of them were dressed for the beach. She pointed it out to others. Perhaps they looked funny. This laugh indicated that the poet’s mother enjoyed remembering her childhood days, when she was young and free from the tensions and worries of adult life. Question 5.What is the meaning of the line ‘Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.’ Answer: The context of the above lines is the mother’s recollection of her childhood days and the poet’s recollection of her mother’s laughing face. The mother had fond memories of her past but there was a sense of loss of the carefree childhood days. The poet’s loss referred to here is the loss of her mother through death and her smile. The memories in each case were beautiful, but painful to recall as time slipped away so easily. Question 6. What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to? Answer: ‘This circumstance’ refers to the death of the poet’s mother. Whenever she saw the photograph of her mother, she becomes sad as the photograph brings sad nostalgic feelings. She gets lost in the sweet old memories of the past. But she can’t do anything about it now. She has nothing to say at all about it. She maintains silence and this silence leads to a deeper pall. (cover) of silence. Question 7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they? Answer: Shirley Toulson’s ‘A Photograph’ describes three phases in time. In the first phase, the poet’s mother is described as a twelve-year-old girl with a sweet and innocent smile. She is standing on the beach enjoying a holiday with her two cousins — Dolly and Betty. This was the phase before the poet’s birth. In the second phase, the poet’s mother’s middle age is described, where she is laughing at her own snapshot. Perhaps the girls were looking quite funny in the beach clothes. The third phase describes the poet’s feelings for her mother, who has died many years ago. This is the current phase. The photograph revives nostalgic feelings in her and it leads to a deeper silence. WORD MEANINGS- paddling – walking through shallow water in bare feet snapshot – photograph wry – disgusted laboured – achieved after a lot of hard work, done with great effort ease – comfort silences – make someone unable to speak Notes by Rahul Roy (M.A. ENG, B.ED , CTET, ADCA), CHINMAYA VIDYALAYA, BOKARO