7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Answers
Ans: the first stanza depicts her mother’s childhood days when she was twelve years old or so. It talks about a photograph of her with her two cousins on a beach holiday. Her uncle took the photograph. Her mother changed over the years as she grew older. While the sea which touched their feet in that beach holiday hadn’t changed over the years.
In the second stanza, the poet talks about her childhood days when her mother used to look at the photograph and recalls everything mentioned in the first stanza.
In the last stanza, the poet shares that her mother is dead as many years ago as was her age in the photograph. She died twelve years ago. The poet is recalling her mother’s old memories while looking at the photograph. She is in pain and misses her deceased mother. She has no words to describe her grief.
The three stanzas depict three different phases. These are the childhood phase of the Poet's mother, her motherhood, and ultimately her death.
- The given question is from the poem 'A Photograph' by Shirley Toulson.
- The three stanzas of the poem express three different phases of life.
- In the first stanza, Toulson's mother is described as a young girl of around twelve who has gone on a beach holiday with her cousins.
- In the second stanza, the poet's childhood and the mother's adulthood are described. The poet recalls how they both used to look at her mother's childhood photo.
- In the third stanza, the mother has died and the poet has reacher her adulthood. She is looking at the same old picture and feeling the pain of losing her mother.