the sea holiday was her past but mine is her laughter
Answers
Answer:This line is from ‘A Photograph’ by Shirley Toulson. The poet looks at her mother’s photograph clicked when she had gone on a sea holiday. The poet recalls how her mother would laugh while looking at it. The sea holiday was a part of the mother’s childhood, her past and the mother’s laughter is the poet’s past as her mother is no more.
‘Both’ refers to the mother’s laughter and the poet’s memory of her mother. Both were tinged with loss-the mother had lost those happy childhood days and the poet had lost her mother. Therefore ‘wry’.
‘laboured’ conveys that both the poet and her mother were struggling, trying to cope with their loss. Yet, both realised that the loss was final and they had to accept it, therefore ‘ease’.
‘laboured ease of loss’ is an oxymoron, a poetic device where two opposites are used together. (Eg ‘kind cruelty of the surgeon’s knife’).
The poem is about transience of human life and irreparable loss. ‘Both wry…..loss’ denotes human helplessness when confronted with loss. We try hard to cope but have no choice but to accept it.
Explanation:
Answer:
Time spares none!. Gone are children days of the poet's mother.'The sea holiday' become 'her past'. The photograph flashes back to the scene that was captured about thirty years ago. Gone is the carefree laughter of the sweet girl who was just twelve or so at that time. For the poet the laughter of the mother has also become a thing of the past.