A Photograph: Theme and Summary

THEME

Our days captured in still pictures have the power to once again evoke smiles and tears of the past. A
search for the lost happiness in photographs is uplifting and saddening, both at the same time. Who
would not want to relive the days when the friends and family were together and days passed by
without a worry. But after the momentary happiness, the present only pinches more as the void
after their departure makes itself felt harder.

The poet here presents a poignant scene of the rush of memories felt when she looks at her
mother’s smiling picture from before she was born. The smile was heartening but poles apart from
her morose expression later in life. If not in reality, the poet got the warm comfort of her smile
through the photograph.

Through the poem, we realize the essential worth of a picture, and how memories of the past prove
a fuel for future life.

SUMMARY
The poet looks at the photograph of her mother, which was taken when her mother was 12 years
old. The mother had gone for a sea holiday with her cousins Betty and Dolly and while they were
paddling, her uncle took a photograph of them.

Each of the cousins was holding the hands of the poet’s mother who was the eldest among them. All
three of them stood smiling through their hair while the photo was taken. Her mother had a sweet
face. All this happened before she was born.

Years fled past. Her mother grew up into an adult. They all underwent changes, while the sea stood
still and seemed unaltered despite the passage of time. After about twenty or thirty years, the poet’s
mother would look at the photograph, laughing nostalgically and remembering the past.

She would comment on the dress worn by her cousins Betty and Dolly and herself. The sea holiday
belonged to the past of her mother and the poet still remembers how her mother would laugh
looking at the snapshot.

The smile Shirley Toulson’s mother had on her face when she thought of her past (the sea holiday)
and Shirley’s thoughts when she recalls her mother’s laughter, both, seem to be wry i.e. filled with
dry or sad amusement for a time that was happier but cannot be re-lived.

For the poet, both these (the photograph and her memories of her mother) bring great sadness and
an acute sense of loss. However, time has been a healer of sorts. Although the sense of loss that may
never go away completely, with time, she has come to accept this eventuality of life.

She has been able to come to terms with her mother’s demise. Her mother died about 12 years ago
and now, the poetess has nothing to say about this circumstance. It leaves her sad and yet at ease. It
leaves her in pain, but with acceptance. The photograph is silent and leaves her silent as well.
The three stanzas depict three different phases. The first stanza refers to the childhood of the poet’s
mother. The second stanza refers to the poet’s childhood when her mother was an adult. The last
stanza refers to the poet’s adulthood when she is not with her mother.

KEY SENTENCES

1. The poet looks at the cardboard on which there is a childhood photograph of her mother.
2. She had gone for a sea holiday with two her cousins Betty and Dolly
3. While they were paddling, their uncle took a photograph of them.
4. Both the cousins were holding the hands of her mother who was the eldest among the girls.
5. This was before the poet was born
6. Time fled past since and all those who are in the photograph under went changes while the sea
remained the same.
7. Her mother would look at the photograph after about twenty to thirty years and laugh
nostalgically.
8. Now for the poet her mother’s laughter and her sea holiday is a thing of the past.
9. Her mother died about 12 years ago.
10. The silence of the photograph silences the poet.
11. She experiences great loss.

DETAILED NOTES

This poem by Shirley Toulson seems a tribute to her mother. One day, she finds an old photograph
of her mother, pasted on a cardboard sheet. A photograph she remembered her mother talking
about with fondness.

Line-wise summary:

1) The cardboard (photograph) shows the narrator who it was that day (poetic device: allusion as
the cardboard’s lack of durability hints at the lack of permanence of human life)

2) When two of her mother’s cousins went paddling (on the beach, with the narrator’s mother)

3) Each of the cousins held one of her mother’s hands.

4) Her mother was the eldest – about twelve years old at this time.

5) All three of them stood smiling, their hair strewn across their face (possibly tossed by the beach
wind or water) (poetic device: alliteration... stood still to smile)
6) As her mother’s uncle clicked their picture with a camera. Her mother’s face was sweet

7) And the picture was taken much before the narrator was born.

8) The sea in the picture is still the same today (has changed very less)

9) And in the picture it seems to wash their feet which by nature, are transient because human life is
short-lived as compared to nature. (Poetic device: Transferred Epithet. 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. It is also alliteration due to the repetition of the ‘t’ sound
but writing only alliteration as the poetic device will lead to a loss of marks)

10) Some twenty, thirty years later from when the picture was clicked,

11) her mother had looked at the snapshot and laughed. She had pointed out her cousin Betty

12) and Dolly and talked nostalgically of how oddly they used to be dressed for the beach. The sea
holiday

13) was remembered by her mother with a fondness as well as a sense of loss because that time
would never return.

14) Similarly, her laughter would never return to the narrator. The sea holiday was the narrator’s
mother’s past and her mother’s laughter is the narrator’s past.

15) Both these pasts, the sea holiday as well as the laughter of her mother are remembered with a
difficult and yet easy sense of loss. (Poetic device: oxymoron. The coming together of two opposite
ideas to describe the same entity. ‘Laboured’ and ‘easy’ are opposite words describing the same
entity ‘loss’. The loss of the holiday and the laughter was easy because these things have to be
accepted as a part of life. They are merely a part of the past and cannot be brought back or
relived. However, precisely because they cannot be relived, there will always be a tinge of
difficulty letting them go completely. They will always be seen as loss.)
16) Now, it has been twelve years since her mother passed away. The girl in the photograph seems
like a different person altogether.  Thus, the use of the words, ‘that girl’.

17) And about the fact that her mother has passed away leaving behind nothing but memories and
photographs like this one,

18) there is nothing to be said. It is a part of life and on thinking of it, one really has no words to
express how one feels.

19) The silence of the whole situation silences the poet and leaves her quiet. (poetic device:
alliteration and personification. The situation has been given the human quality of silence and the
sound of ‘s’ has been repeated)

The camera thus managed to capture a moment in time. It kept the memory of the mother and for
the mother alive. The sea holiday brought a sad smile (wry) to the mother’s face because she
couldn’t relive it but was glad that she once had. Similarly, thinking of her mother’s laughter brought
a sad smile to the poet’s face because although that laughter was now gone she was glad to have
once had it in her life.

Nature is perennial while human life is temporary or transient. The poet uses a transferred epithet
(terribly transient feet) in order to make this comparison and highlight the terribly short-lived life of
her mother.

As in the Portrait of a Lady, this poem also deals with the theme of loss and bereavement and the
impact it leaves on those who are left behind.

QUESTION BANK

Reference to Context (RTC) questions:

1. The cardboard shows me how it was

When the two girl cousins went paddling
Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,
And she the big girl- some twelve years or so.
                        a. What does the cardboard refer to?
                        b. Who was the big girl and how old was she?
                        c. How did the cousins go paddling with mother?

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
                        a. Who does ‘all three’ refer to here?
                        b. Where are they now?
                        c. Why did they smile through their hair?
3...A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born
And the sea, which appears to have changed less
Washed their terribly transient feet.
                        a. Where was her mother?
                        b. When did this incident take place?
                        c. How is the poet able to remember her mother’s childhood?
                        d. What has stood the onslaught of time and what has not?

4. Some twenty- thirty- years later

She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty
And Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they
Dressed us for the beach.”
                        a. Who would laugh at the snapshot after twenty – thirty years later?
                        b. How did mother remember her past?
                        c. Who were Betty and Dolly?

6. ...The sea holiday

was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss
                        a. Who went for the sea holiday in the past?
                        b. What does ‘both’ refer to?
                        c. How does the poet feel when she remembers her mother?

7. Now she’s has been dead nearly as many years

As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all,
Its silence silences.
                        a. How many years are over after the death of her mother?
                        b. What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?
                        c. Why has the poet nothing to say about this circumstance?
                        d. What impact has the photograph on the poet?

Oxymoron – Are either literary effects designed to create a paradox/opposition of two parallel ideas,
or deliberately added/created for humour. E.g. Parting is such sweet sorrow, Controlled chaos,
Laboured ease etc.
Short answer questions

Q.1. What is the significance of the ‘cardboard’ frame?

Q.2. What tone has the poetess adopted in the poem?

Q.3. What comparison between the sea and human beings has been drawn in the second stanza?

Q.4. What emotions do you associate with the mother looking at the photograph?

Q.5. What emotions would you associate with Shirley as she looks at the photograph?

Q.6. Why does the poetess seem to have nothing to say about the ‘circumstance’?

Q.7. What is silenced and how has it silenced the poetess?

Advanced level short questions:

Q.8. What emotions do you as readers feel as you look at the photograph through Shirley’s eyes?

Q.9. A photograph has many viewers. Comment, based on your understanding of this poem.

Q.10. What seems to be the poetess’s attitude towards death?

Long answer questions

Q.1. Each photograph is a memory. Justify the statement, in the light of the poem.

Q.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 other will require recall.

Q.3. A photograph captures a moment in time. Discuss with reference to one of your favourite
photographs.

Q.4. If you were the poet, what title would you give to this poem and why.

Q.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 a letter to your niece, Shirley, remembering the day at the beach.
Q.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 your life.

Q.7. Discuss man’s relation to nature based on any two chapters you may have read (poems, prose,
or drama).

Q.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.

Q.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.

Q.10. Rewrite the poem from the perspective of the mother.