Question

very short summary on a photograph class 11

Answer 1

‘A Photograph’ by Shirley Toulson is a poem about how the poet discovers an old photograph of her mother in her young teens along with her cousins in the beach.

They look very happy to be near the sea and were photographed by their uncle.

The poet’s mother is filled with nostalgia upon seeing the picture in her late forties.

Unfortunately, the poet had chanced upon it again about twelve years after her mother had died. The poem thus conveys the beauty of photos being able to capture the past and how memories can be bittersweet as time passes by.

Answer 2

Answer:

• 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.