Poem: A Photograph | Shirley Toulson | NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Chapter

Infer the meaning of the following words from the context

Q1. paddling (wading in water, walking with bare feet in shallow water)

Answer: The poet describes the scene when her mother was young and she was enjoying paddling in water with her two cousins, who were holding her hands.

Q2. transient (short-lived)

Answer: The poet’s mother was standing on the beach with her two cousins, who were paddling in the water, but the imprints of the foot were washed away as they were temporary (short-lived).

Q3. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

Answer: The word ‘cardboard’ denotes the framed photograph of her mother and her two sisters. The poet has used this word because it was moulded in a frame.

Q4. What has the camera captured?

Answer: The camera captured a childhood memory of the poet’s mother and her two cousins when they went on a sea holiday. At the beach, they stood still, holding hands and smiling at the camera in their uncle’s hand with delight.

Q5. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

Answer: The sea has not changed over the years. It suggests that nature is everlasting, whereas human life is mortal. We grow old, but the objects of nature, like the sea, brooks, rivers, and mountains, never change. It indicates the immortality of nature over the mortality of human life.

Q6. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?

The poet’s mother laughed at the photograph whenever she saw it. It reminded her of her childhood days. She was happy to see an image from her youth and felt amused by how they used to dress for the beach. It also seemed that she missed those childhood days. Nostalgia washed over her as she longed for her past.

Q7. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”.

Answer: The passage states that as time progresses, events in our lives become part of the past. For example, the "sea holiday" happened to the poet's mother in the past, and her "laughter" is something the poet remembers from her past. Everything in life is temporary, and nothing remains the same. Whether experiences are good or bad, they change over time. We must adapt to these changes, even if we find them unappealing.

The poet reminisces about her mother's laughter, which she can no longer hear. Both the mother and the poet tried to appear calm about their loss, but they were only pretending. People must compel themselves to accept what has transpired, even when it is profoundly sad or challenging.

So, the poet's happy memory of the "sea holiday" and her mother's "laughter" doesn't feel as strong anymore because she has gradually accepted that they are gone.

Q8. What does “this circumstance” refer to?

Answer: ‘This circumstance’ refers to the poet's present situation, wherein the poet is absorbed in the painful memory of her dead mother. Looking at the photograph and thinking of her mother’s laughter, the poet also realises that it has been the same number of years since her mother died as her mother’s age in the photograph.

Q9. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

Answer: The first stanza refers to the childhood days of the poet’s mother when she was twelve years old or so. The stanza depicts a photograph of her mother when she went for a beach holiday with her cousins and uncle.

The second stanza refers to the poet’s childhood days when her mother had become an adult. It depicts her mother recalling her childhood days while looking at the old photograph of hers (mentioned in the first stanza).

In the last stanza, the poet’s adult life is described in which her mother is not with her anymore. She has been dead for almost twelve years. The stanza depicts the poet looking at the same photograph and recollecting her mother’s laughter. The loss of her mother puts her in utter grief. She has no words to describe the terrible pain of her mother’s death.

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