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 to work out 

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 other will 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 a letter 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 your life.
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..