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    Class 11 Ch1&poem

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    Shreyans Singh
    The poem recalls the poet's mother through an old photograph from her childhood. The photograph shows the poet's mother at age 12 on a beach holiday with her cousins. While the sea in the background remains unchanged, the poet's mother has grown older over the years. When she was alive, she would laugh while sharing stories from the photo with her daughter. Now, 12 years after her mother's death, the poet feels grief and loss while looking at the photo, remembering her mother's laugh and the happy memories it represents.

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    Class 11 Ch1&poem

    Uploaded by

    Shreyans Singh
    621 views3 pages
    The poem recalls the poet's mother through an old photograph from her childhood. The photograph shows the poet's mother at age 12 on a beach holiday with her cousins. While the sea in the background remains unchanged, the poet's mother has grown older over the years. When she was alive, she would laugh while sharing stories from the photo with her daughter. Now, 12 years after her mother's death, the poet feels grief and loss while looking at the photo, remembering her mother's laugh and the happy memories it represents.

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    class 11 ch1&poem

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    The poem recalls the poet's mother through an old photograph from her childhood. The photograph shows the poet's mother at age 12 on a beach holiday with her cousins. While the sea in the background remains unchanged, the poet's mother has grown older over the years. When she was alive, she would laugh while sharing stories from the photo with her daughter. Now, 12 years after her mother's death, the poet feels grief and loss while looking at the photo, remembering her mother's laugh and the happy memories it represents.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    621 views3 pages

    Class 11 Ch1&poem

    Uploaded by

    Shreyans Singh
    The poem recalls the poet's mother through an old photograph from her childhood. The photograph shows the poet's mother at age 12 on a beach holiday with her cousins. While the sea in the background remains unchanged, the poet's mother has grown older over the years. When she was alive, she would laugh while sharing stories from the photo with her daughter. Now, 12 years after her mother's death, the poet feels grief and loss while looking at the photo, remembering her mother's laugh and the happy memories it represents.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Class 11 English (Hornbill Book) Poem 1 – A Photograph

    By Shirley Toulson

    A Photograph Introduction of the lesson

    The poem ‘A Photograph’ is written by Shirley Toulson. In this poem, she recalls her mother and her
    memories while looking at a childhood photograph when her mother was twelve years old or so. She
    has been deceased twelve years ago and she cannot explain her grief on her mother’s loss.

    A Photograph Summary

    The poem is a tribute to the poet’s mother. She is looking at an old photograph of her mother which has
    a frame of cardboard. The picture has three girls in which the middle one is the oldest and tallest.

    It is her mother when she was twelve years old or so. Beside her, on both sides are her two cousins,
    Betty and Dolly, who are holding her hands and are younger than her. They went for paddling on a
    beach holiday. Her uncle took the photograph then. The poet could not help but notice her mother’s
    sweet face. The sea touched her terribly transient feet which depicted that she changed over the years
    and the sea remained the same.

    After twenty-thirty years, her mother would laugh at the photograph. She would make the poet look at
    the photograph and tell her how their parents would dress them up for the beach holiday. The beach
    holiday was her mother’s favourite past memories while her laugh was the poet's favourite memory.
    Both of them lost something which they cherished a lot and yet cannot live that moment again.

    Those sweet moments were memories now.


    Now, the poet’s mother had been dead for the past twelve years, which is the same number as of her
    age when the photograph was taken back then. She cannot express the grief that she has from her
    mother’s absence.

    A Photograph Question and Answers

    1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

    Ans: In the poem, the word ‘cardboard’ means a frame which supports the photograph. This word had
    been used in the poem because the picture is very old when the cardboard was used as a photo frame.

    2. What has the camera captured?

    Ans: The camera has captured the poet’s mother and her two cousins, Betty and Dolly, on the beach.
    They went for paddling where her mother’s uncle captured the photo in between the moment. Her
    mother was around twelve years old and was in the middle. She was holding the hands of her cousins
    who were on the side of her. It was her mother’s favourite past memories.

    3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

    Ans: The lines ‘And the sea, which appears to have changed less’ depicts that the sea which touched her
    mother’s feet is the one which has not changed over the years. Whereas, her mother and her cousins
    grew older. The sea symbolises eternity and immortality. Human being has a life span and has to die one
    day. Life is not permanent. The poet is sad about her mother’s demise twelve years ago and her laugh is
    her favourite past memory.

    4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?

    Ans: The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot recalling her favourite past memories. She looked back
    at the photograph and remembered how their parents would dress them up for the beach holiday. Her
    laugh indicated her remembering the innocent days and the nostalgia feeling. Behind the laugh is also a
    feeling of pain that those days won’t be back.
    5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.”

    Ans: the above lines means that the poet’s mother felt pain whenever she saw the old photograph
    because the innocent childhood days would never be back. Those are just the memories. While the poet
    has lost his mother twelve years ago and she misses her a lot and recalls her laughing and pointing out
    the outfits they used to wear at the beach holidays. Both of them lost something.

    6. What does “this circumstance” refer to?

    Ans: The words ‘this circumstance’ refers to the present situation of the poet which is the painful
    memories of her mother who have been deceased twelve years ago. While looking at the old
    photograph of her mother’s childhood makes her miss her more. She remembers her laughing and how
    the photograph was her favourite past memory.

    7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

    Ans: the first stanza depicts her mother’s childhood days when she was twelve years old or so. It talks
    about a photograph of her with her two cousins on a beach holiday. Her uncle took the photograph. Her
    mother changed over the years as she grew older. While the sea which touched their feet in that beach
    holiday hadn’t changed over the years.

    In the second stanza, the poet talks about her childhood days when her mother used to look at the
    photograph and recalls everything mentioned in the first stanza.

    In the last stanza, the poet shares that her mother is dead as many years ago as was her age in the
    photograph. She died twelve years ago. The poet is recalling her mother’s old memories while looking at
    the photograph. She is in pain and misses her deceased mother. She has no words to describe her grief.

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