A PHOTOGRAPH

Class: XI Sub: ENGLISH

Introduction
The poet describes her feelings about the photograph of her mother taken when she was twelve
years old. She realises that human life is ever changing and short lived. A human being grows
old and dies. The memories of the past make her nostalgic and sad. The poet shares her mother’s
joys but in the event of her mother’s death, there is only silence.

I. 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 and the silence is all that remains.
The theme of the poem ‘A Photograph’ is how transient and mortal human life is, it reflects the
pain of separation and how people after death are vividly present in the memories of their loved
ones.
II. POETIC DEVICES

• Allusion: the ‘cardboard’s’ lack of durability hints at the lack of permanence of human
life.
• Transferred Epithet: ‘Terribly transient feet’. Human life itself is temporary not the
feet. When the adjective for one noun like life is transferred to another noun like feet,
it is called transferred epithet.

ISWK/ CLASS XI/QUESTION BANK/ENG 1

 • Alliteration: ‘terribly transient feet’. It is also alliteration due to the repetition of the
‘t’ sound. ‘stood still to smile’ ‘Its silence silences.’ (sound of s has been repeated).
• Oxymoron: Laboured ease of loss. The coming together of two opposite ideas to
describe the same entity. ‘Laboured’ and ‘easy’ are opposite words describing the same
entity ‘loss’.
• Personification: ‘Its silence silences’. The situation has been given the human quality.
•
III. TEXTUAL QUESTIONS 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’ denotes the photograph pasted on a hard thick paper (a
frame which supports the photograph). It is being used in the poem because the picture is very old
and the cardboard was used as a photo frame to hold it.
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 paddling where her mother’s uncle captured the photo. Her mother was around
twelve years old and was in the middle. She was holding the hands of her cousins who were on
either side of her. It was her mother’s favourite past memory.

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. Human life is not permanent.
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.
This ‘laugh’ indicated her joy at remembering an incident connected with her past life when she
was quite young. Behind the laugh is also a feeling of pain that those days won’t come back.

5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.”
Ans: The sea holiday and the laughter of the poet’s mother are incidents of the past. There is a
sense of loss associated with them. The above lines mean 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 her 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. This sense of loss is quite painful to bear.
6. What does “this circumstance” refer to?

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Ans: This circumstance refers to the death of the poet’s mother. The words ‘this circumstance’
refers to the present situation of the poet which is the painful memories of her mother who had
been deceased twelve years ago. While looking at the old photograph of her mother’s childhood
makes her miss her. 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: 1. Girlhood of the poet’s mother – The phase before the poet’s birth.
2. Middle age of the poet’s mother – The phase during the poet’s childhood.
3. Death of the poet’s mother – The phase after the death of the poet’s mother.
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 during 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 with laughter 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.

EXTRA QUESTIONS

IV. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow.
1. ‘Now she’s been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.’
1. How long has the poet’s mother been dead?
The poet’s mother has been dead for about twelve years.
2. Why is there nothing to say at all?
There is nothing to say at all because the poet has lost her mother and her beautiful smile forever.
3. What silences the silence?
The silence of death silences the silence.

For Practice:
2. ‘All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the uncle with the camera. A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born.

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And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet.’

1. What are the three of them doing in the photograph?

(a) playing in the sand
(b) standing beside house
© holding garlands in their hands
(d) holding hands together

2. What has not changed over a period of time?

(a) The photo
(b) The cardboard
(c) The girls
(d) The sea

3. Find a word from the extract which means “lasting only for a short time”?
(a) Still
(b) Transient
(c) Changed
(d) Less

V. Questions for Practice:

1. Describe the three girls as they pose for the photograph?

2. The sea ‘appears to have changed less’ in comparison to the three girls who enjoyed the
sea holiday. Comment.

3. Why does the poet feel nostalgic?

4. Comment on the tone of the poem.

VI. Long answer type questions-

1. Justify the title of the poem, ‘A Photograph’

The poem, ‘A Photograph’ is composed in blank verse. (A blank verse is a poem with no rhyme,
most frequently used in English dramatic, epic, and reflective verse.) The title of the poem is
very appropriate as it reminds the poet of her mother. A photograph is something that captures a
certain moment of someone’s life. The person might change in course of time but the memories
attached with the photograph are eternal. In this poem, the poet’s mother is no more but the
photograph makes her memories come alive. The mother’s sweet face or her cousins dressed up
for the beach have all changed with time but the moment captured in the photograph still gives

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happiness to the poet’s mother when she views it twenty to thirty years later. The poet recalls her
mother’s old memories while looking at the photograph after the mother is no more.
2. What impression do you form of the poetess and the poetess’s mother after reading the
poem ‘A Photograph’?