Summary of photograph
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Poem Summary
Shirley Toulson’s poem “The Photograph” is a tribute to her mother. The poet is looking at an old photograph of her mother when her mother was a little girl. Photographs capture a moment in a time and also the emotions felt when the photograph was taken. The photograph shows her mother playing on a beach accompanied with her two cousins. Her mother is the elder one among the two and she is holding the hands of her other cousins. The weather was windy at that time and their hair was flying on their faces when the uncle took the photograph. All the three children had a happy and smiling expression on their face.
The poet expresses the view that her mother had a sweet face when the poet was not even born. The sea washes away the transient feet of the children. ‘Transient feet’ refers to the changeable nature of human beings i.e. ‘feet’ too will change with time. The sea is unchangeable and it has washed away the footprints on the sand. Similarly, the photograph and the memories have not changed while the time has changed and so has the poet’s mother who is no more.
The poet recalls that when her mother used to take a look at the photograph after thirty-forty years, she would laugh hard. By that time, her mother was married and she had a daughter of her own. The poet’s mother would laugh and say how her cousins Betty and Dolly were dressed up for the beach.
The sea holiday was the mother’s past and her laughter was the poet’s. There had been huge changes in the lives of the mother and the daughter. Both the mother and the daughter had learned to accept the losses their fate has imbibed them with.
The poet’s mother is no more and the silence of the little girl in the photograph has silenced the poet. She is left without words. The photograph reminds her of her mother. Shirley Toulson feels sad seeing the photograph of her dead mother while her mother had derived a sense of happiness and laughter when she used to see it. This feeling of loss has silenced the poet.
PLEASE FOLLOW AND MARK ME AS BRAINLIEST ❤️
A Photograph
- Shirley Toulson
'A Photograph' is a poem written by Shirley Toulson. In this poem there is a photograph which is pasted on a cardboard. This snap has three faces on it. All of them are girls. The middle girl is the tallest and eldest and holding hands with two other girls both on each of her sides. This tallest girl is Poetess's mother. And the two girls are Betty and Dolly. Their feet were drowned by the sea water. This tells the author that the sea has not changed yet but her mother gets changed. This photograph is taken before the poetess was born. Her mother is on a beach holiday with her family.
In that picture her mother is twelve years old or so. She is looking very pretty. According to the poetess after twenty-thirty years her mother looks at the photograph and tells the author how her parents would dress them up for taking to beach. One of the favourite memories of her mother is the beach holiday while the author's favourite is her mother's laugh.
Now her mother is no more, she is dead. The author is feeling lonely and missing her. She can't express her grief.