Question

Think it out
1. What does the word 'cardboard' denote in the poem? Why has
this word been used?
2. What has the camera captured?
3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest
something to you?
4. The poet's mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh
indicate?
5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of
loss."
6. What does “this circumstance” refer to?
7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Notes​

Answer 1

Answer:

1. the word 'cardboard' stands for the frame that supports and borders the photograph. The photograph shows the poet's mother as a twelve year old girl with two of her cousins, Betty and Dolly. The word 'cardboard' has been used to depict that the photograph is many years old.

2.The camera had captured all three girls alive in it. It has captured the pretty face of the poet's mother who as a girl of twelve years are the time. It has also captured the smiling face of the two cousins Betty and dolly. They are holding the hands of the poet's mother.

3.The sea has not changed over the years. It suggests that the prominent features of nature do not change much. Human beings come and go, but nature always remains.

4. The poet's mother laughed at the happy memories of the moments that had passed long back. She looked back to her childhood with nostalgia and remembered the innocent joys of her childhood days.

5. The poetess is sad about the fact that her mother's laughter is history. Her mother feels the same for her childhood days. The word 'wry' here means disappointment.

6.'This circumstance' refers to the present situation of the poet wherein the poet is absorbed in the painful memory of her dead mother.

7.The stanza depicts a photograph of her mother when she went for a beach holiday with her cousins and uncle. The second stanza refers to the poet's childhood days when her mother had become an adult.