Question

Summary A photograph

Answer 1

Answer:

By Shirley Toulson

The poem, ‘A photograph’, contrasts the eternal state of nature and the transitory state of human beings. The poet describes a photograph that captures interesting moments of her mother’s childhood when she went for a sea holiday with her two girl cousins. The poet draws a contrast between nature, changing at a snail’s pace and the fast-changing human life.

The poet recollects how her mother laughed at the photograph and felt disappointed at the loss of her childhood joys. The sea holiday was her mother’s past at that time, while her mother’s laughter is the poet’s past now. With great difficulty and at different periods of time, both reconcile with their respective losses and the pain involved in recollecting the past. For the poet, the death of her mother brings great sadness and an acute sense of loss. The painful ‘silence’ of the situation leaves her with no words to express her grief. Thus, the ‘silence silences’ her.

The three stanzas of the poem depict three different stages of life i.e. early adolescence (girlhood).adulthood and death

Explanation:

Hope it helps you dear mate ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Answer 2

Answer:

The poet views the photograph, taken before she was born, of her mother and her two cousins. It was of the three girls, when they went to the beach. The two cousins were younger that the narrator's mother, who was about twelve years old then. Both the cousins were on either side of the mother holding her hands. The three of them smiled at the camera as the uncle clicked the photograph. The camera had caught them smiling as the breeze refiled their hair.  

The poet notices her mother's sweet face of a time before she was born. Her face had changed much, unlike the sea which had remained unchanged. The sea washed their unbearably short-lived feet. The mother is now dead. The poet recalls how twenty or thirty years later her mother would look at the photograph and recall with amusement how, as young girls, they had been dressed for the beach. She had been out for a holiday to the beach years back and felt nostalgic about it, just as the poet felt when she relived the memories of their mother. She recalled with pain the memories of her mother's laughter. She found it difficult to come to term with her mother's death. She remembers her mother who died a long time ago: she has now lived without her for almost half of her life and this fact overwhelms her into silence.