The Photograph by Shirley Toulson -
Question & Answers
1) What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this wordbeen used?
Ans:The cardboard means a very stiff and thick paper, here the cardboard is a part of theframe that keeps the photograph intact. It's use in poem is ironical It keeps the photograph of that 12 year old girl safe who herself was terribly transient The player's mother had died some years ago.
2) What has the camera captured?
Ans:The camera had captured all the three girls alive in it. It has captured the pretty face of the poet's mother who as a girl of twelve at that time. It has also captured the smiling faces of the two girl cousins Betty and Dolly. They are holding the hands of the poet's mother.
3) What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Ans:The sea has not changed over the years. Itrings out the transient nature and its object. Time spares none. The pretty faces and the feet of the three girls are terribly transient or moral when compared to the ageless and unchangeable sea.
4) The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Ans:The poet's mother laughs at the snapshot which was taken years ago. In the photograph, she as well as her two little cousins stood at the each. She laughed at the ay all of them were dressed up for the beach. Perhaps they looked funny. Their laughter indicated the youthful spirit.
5) What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease or loss”
Ans:Both the mother and the poet suffered a great sense of loss. The mother has lost her childhood innocence and joyful spirit that the photograph has captured some years ago. For the poet, the smile of her mother has becomething of the past. She has silently resigned to her faith. Ironically both labour to bear their loss with ease.
6) What does "this circumstance" refer to?
Ans:The circumstance refers to the death of the poet's mother. The photograph of her dead mother brings sad nostalgic feelings in the past. But the poet has nothing to say at all about the circumstance. The silence of the poet makes the silence prevailing their still deeper.
7) The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Ans:In the first stanza, the poet's mother is shown as a twelve year old girl with pretty smiling face. Then she is paddling with her twogirl cousins. This face is before the poet's birth. The second face describes the middle aged mother laughing at her own snapshot. The third face describes the chilling pale of silence that the death of her mother has left of the past.
The Photograph by Shirley Toulson - Extra Questions
1) How does the poet contracts the girls terrible transience with the scene?
Ans:All the girls standing at the each have a terribly transient existence. They are mortal and suffer physical change with the passage of time. THe mother's sweet face and her smile has already disappeared for the last twenty or thirty years. But the vast sea remains unchanged or seemed to have less changed in their comparison.
2) "Both thrive with the laboured ease of loss" Describe the ironical situation.
Ans:Both the mother and the daughter suffer a sense of loss. The mother has lost her care free childhood. She can't have these moments of enjoyment again that she once experienced at the beach. She can't be a sweet smiling girl of twelve again. This is considered as the poet's loss too. She can't see the smiling face and experience the laughter again in life. The irony of the situation is that both of them struggle to ear the loss with tolerable ease.
3) Explain the line " the sea holiday as a past, mine is her laughter , Time spares none" .
Ans:Gone are the childhood days of mother and the sea holiday has become her past, the photograph flashes back to the scene that was captured about 30 years ago. Gone is a carefree laughter of the mother which was love at one time. But now, the laughter of her mother has eventually become a thing of past for the poet. She has silently resigned herself to the fate.
Questions for practice
Short answer type questions
1.What is the significance of the ‘cardboard’ frame?
2.What tone has the poetess adopted in the poem?
3.What comparison between the sea and human beings has been drawn in the second stanza?
4.What emotions do you associate with the mother looking at the photograph?
5.What emotions would you associate with Shirley as she looks at the photograph?
6.Why does the poetess seem to have nothing to say about the ‘circumstance’?
7.What is silenced and how has it silenced the poetess?
Long answer type questions
1.Each photograph is a memory. Justify the statement, in the light of the poem.
2.The past can be a source of inspiration as well as regret. Comment, based on any two chapters (prose, poem or drama) that you have read. One may be this poem. The otherwill require recall.
3.A photograph captures a moment in time. Discuss with reference to one of your favourite photographs.
4.If you were the poet, what title would you give to this poem and why.
5.You are the uncle who took the photograph of your mother. At her birthday this year, you came across a copy of this poem. Write aletter to your niece, Shirley, remembering the day at the beach.
6.When we look at something, it looks right back at us. Imagine that you are a photograph, (not necessarily the one in the poem). Write a diary entry commenting on the various people who have come into yourlife.
7.Discuss man’s relation to nature based on any two chapters you may have read (poems,prose, or drama).
8.You are a member of the Blossoms team at Bluebells. You have been assigned the task to interview students at various class levels and write an article about our relationship with our parents. Write the article referring to this poem in context.
9.We only realise the significance of something or someone in our lives, in their absence. Discuss with reference to the text and your real life..
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