Question

summary of the photograph class 11

Answer 1

Nostalgically recollecting fond memories, the poet looks at a very old photograph of her mother who has been dead for nearly twelve years. The poet is consumed with grief but is left with no words to express the loss. The poem begins with the poet looking at a very old photograph of her mother at twelve years of age. The photograph, on a cardboard frame, shows the poet’s mother, with her two girl cousins each holding one of her hand. She was eldest of the three and had a ‘sweet face’. In the snapshot, all the three girls stand still, smiling with their hair falling on their faces, to get clicked by the camera of their uncle, on an occasion when they went paddling. The sea, which has apparently undergone no change, washed their ‘transient’ feet. This image of transience provides a sharp contrast to the eternal sea. Some 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 the beach holiday. That sea holiday was a thing of past for her mother at that time, while her mother’s laughter is the poet’s past now. Both signify their respective losses and the pain involved in recollecting the past. Her mother is dead for nearly twelve years now. And for the present ‘circumstance’ the poet has nothing left to say. She is absorbed in the memories of her dead mother. The painful ‘silence’ of the situation leaves the poet silent, with no words to express her grief. Thus, the ‘silence silences’ her.

Answer 2

Answer:

The poem begins when the poetess goes through her mother’s photo that lay within the cardboard boxes. They were possibly uncared for some time. In addition, it is not in any frame, metal, etc. So, the poetess portrays it as being susceptible to forces of decay. In the photo poetess’s mother seem edged by her siblings, who are younger than her. Also, she highlights her mother strength as she supports her young cousins.

They all look into the camera when their brother/uncle photograph them. Moreover, they look happy and excited with their throwing locks and pleasant smiles. Further, the picture shows the sea waves smashing at them as the young girls learn to keep up with the waves. She (poetess) remains with the thought that sea. Even in motion, her mother (motionless in the photograph) is able to resist the change as she has surrendered herself to mortality.

In the second part/phase, in her older days, her mother looks back the day at the sea. Moreover, she remembers her two cousins and recalls the day memorialized in the photograph. Also, she makes fun of her and her cousins’ outfits. These lines have a tone of sadness as the mother tries to accept the continual motion of life as she grows older. Looking back at her 12-years-old self maybe was an attempt to return to her childhood, which is a painful reminder of time and age.

In the third part, the poetess remembering her mother as she died earlier.  Further, the photo scripts a memory for both. As it knots the mother and daughter together even after her mother has left her for forever. The poetess confesses that the photo bliss at imagining her mother’s laughter much like her mother delight in remembering the day at the sea.

Moreover, she notices that the time over since her mother’s final departure is the same as her age in the photograph i.e., 12 years. Maybe it’s a coincidence or an irony of life and death. Eventually, both poetess and her mother learn to accept the change and make peace with their memories. Even though they remind them of the briefness of laughter, happy moment, etc.

Although the death or end makes things go quiet and empty. However, the poetess, find her mother died to be loud and inspiring enough to pour her feelings out in the form of a tribute and poem. Thus, even though death finishes everything. But her mother’s death brings out a new response in her. Lastly, she accepts (silently) her resignation to the final silence of death.

Explanation: