DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, BOPAL, AHMEDABAD

CLASS XI (2022-23)
ENGLISH NOTES

A Photograph
- Shirley Toulson

About the poet:

Shirley Toulson(1924-2014) an English poet, born in Henley – on – Thames, England. However, she spent
most of her life in Somerset. Toulson worked as a teacher of creative writing for adults. Between 1967 and
1970 she was the editor of the journal ‘Teacher’. Between 1970 and 1974 she was the editor of Child
Education. Toulson’s first collection of poetry entitled Shadows in an Orchard was published in 1960. Her
primary interest was in Celtic Christianity. [Celtic Christianity refers to the early Medieval Christian
practice that came about in 4th century Ireland.] ‘The Celtic alternative’ and ‘The Celtic year’ were her
famous works on this subject.
BACKGROUND

Not much is known about the publication history of “A Photograph”, despite this poem being one of the best
known poems of Shirley Toulson.

INTRODUCTION

The poem captures three different moods and situations in three stanzas. The first one tells about a snapshot
or an instant cardboard-photo of three girls. They are cousins. The eldest one, 12 years old, became the
mother of the poetess after marriage. They are enjoying a sea holiday, putting on funny dresses. Their uncle
takes a photo and captures the smiling faces of all the three.

Some 20-30 years later, the mother looks at the photo and laughs. She tells the poetess how her cousins
Betty and Dolly had all dressed for the holiday. The outing on the beach in a quaint dress was the mother’s
past. But her laughter has become a thing of the past for the poetess. The mother passed away some twelve
years ago. The void created by her death has made life dull and sad.

RHYME SCHEME

The poem, “A Photograph” is composed in blank verse. The poet does not follow any identifiable rhyme
scheme in the poem.

MESSAGE

The poem 'A Photograph' describes the transient nature of human existence on Earth, just like everything
else. It is indeed these photographs that capture memories and help us relive the lost moments. The poet
had lost her mother and remembers the time her mother used to look at the photograph and cherish those
moments of her youth. Just like the sea washes away the footprints on the sand, the same way the
photograph reminds her of the loss of her mother to the inevitable fate of humans. The poem stresses on
living a cheerful life as the end is known and sure to come.

CENTRAL IDEA

The central idea of the poem is that man is a mortal and has a transitory relationship to his surroundings.
There are moments of happiness and joy. One experiences loss at various stages of life.

THEME

The theme of the poem Photograph is loss, memory and the transience of life. It explores how people may
die but in a strange way they continue to live on in the form of memories. These memories are not just
restricted to one's head but can also attain a tangible form such as photographs. In certain ways, a
photograph is like a memory, plucked out of time and frozen forever. The person one sees in the photograph
is a version of themselves that no longer exists and it is especially ironic when we see how it can be
connected to death. The photograph also marks the loss of that moment which is being photographed; it
marks the passage of time and then becomes a reminder of what has gone by. Human beings are mortal and
thus, we continue to seek ways in which to immortalize ourselves, through photographs and memories.

TONE
The tone of this poem undergoes a great change from the beginning of the poem to its end. At first, the tone
is both nostalgic and joyful as the poet looks at an old photograph of her mother in her childhood. The
spirit of nostalgia continues as she recounts how her mother would often look at the photograph and
reminisce about the day when it was taken. A tone of sadness creeps in when the poet compares the
unchanging sea with the brevity of human life. At the very end of the poem, she becomes silent as she
cannot vocalize how sad her mother’s death has made her.

WORD MEANING

cardboard– here, photograph; It has the hard base of a cardboard;

how it was–the situation at that time;
paddling–walking with short steps on water
big girl–the mother of the poet, was then only twelve years old.
all three- the poets’ mother and her two cousins;
still—motionless;
smile through their hair—with some hair strands falling over their eyes and face
changed less—the sea over the years hasn’t changed
washed—touched
terribly—greatly, at fast speed
transient—lasting only for a short time; impermanent
snapshot–the photo
sea holiday–an outing on the sea beach
wry- dryly amused
laboured ease of loss–suffered the ravages of time and bore the loss.

GIST OF THE POEM

Shirley Toulson’s poem “A Photograph” is a tribute to her mother. The poet is looking at an old photograph
of her mother when her mother was a little girl. Photographs capture a moment in a time and also the
emotions felt when the photograph was taken. The photograph shows her mother playing on a beach
accompanied with her two cousins. Her mother is the elder one among the two and she is holding the hands
of her other cousins. The weather was windy at that time and their hair was flying on their faces when the
uncle took the photograph. All the three children had a happy and smiling expression on their face.
The poet expresses the view that her mother had a sweet face when the poet was not even born. The sea
washes away the transient feet of the children. ‘Transient feet’ refers to the changeable nature of human
beings i.e. ‘feet’ too will change with time. The sea is unchangeable and it has washed away the footprints
on the sand. Similarly, the photograph and the memories have not changed while the time has changed and
so has the poet’s mother who is no more.
The poet recalls that when her mother used to take a look at the photograph after thirty-forty years, she
would laugh out aloud. By that time, her mother was married and she had a daughter of her own. The poet’s
mother would laugh and say how her cousins Betty and Dolly were dressed up for the beach.
The sea holiday was the mother’s past and her laughter was the poet’s. There had been huge changes in the
lives of the mother and the daughter. Both the mother and the daughter had learned to accept the losses their
fate has imbued them with.
The poet’s mother is no more and the silence of the little girl in the photograph has silenced the poet. She is
left without words. The photograph reminds her of her mother. Shirley Toulson feels sad seeing the
photograph of her dead mother while her mother had derived a sense of happiness and laughter when she
used to see it. This feeling of loss has silenced the poet.

Title
The title, “A Photograph” is very much 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 gaily dressed up for the
beach have all changed with time but the moment captured in the photograph still gives happiness to the
poet’s mother when she views it twenty to thirty years later.

KEY SENTENCES:

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

Reference to Context:

Q.1. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

“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’ show the poet?

Ans: The ‘cardboard’ shows the poet the scene on the sea beach with three girls.

b. Why did the two girl cousins hold one of the poet’s mother’s hands?

Ans: As the poet’s mother was ‘the big girl’ i. e. elder in age so the two girl cousins hold one of her hands.

c. How old was the oldest girl among the three cousins?

Ans: The oldest among the three cousins was some twelve years old.

Answer the following in 30-40 words.

Q1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
 
Ans. ‘Cardboard’ refers to the photograph only. In the past photographs used to be fixed on a cardboard and
hung from the wall for everyone to see it.

Q2. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
 
Ans. The sea has not changed over the years. It suggests the immortality of sea as compared to the mortal
human beings whose life comes to an end finally.

Q3. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What does this laugh indicate?
 Ans. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. This is an indication of the fun and joy she had
experienced during the beach holiday and she had fond memories of that particular incident. It brought joy
to her when she looked at the snapshot.

Q4. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease or loss”?
Ans. The context of the above lines is the mother’s recollection of her childhood days and the poet’s
recollection of her mother’s laughing face. The mother has fond memories of her past but there is a sense of
loss in recalling those moments as they make her realise that the good old times of her childhood will never
come back. For the poet, the ‘loss’ refers to the loss of her mother. She has fond memories of her dead
mother but she misses her laughter and her presence that will never return to the poet. Thus, both remember
their pasts with a laugh that conceals sadness as none can re-live those lost moments.
"Laboured ease" is an oxymoron; a contradiction in terms. Ease, of its very nature, cannot be laboured. And
yet the poet uses this expression to convey the sense that both she and her mother struggled over a long
period of time to deal with their loss. Yet this ease is bittersweet—the poet and her mother both work to
achieve it.

ASSIGNMENT:

Reference to Context:
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

Q.1. “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?

Q2. “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. What has stood the onslaught of time and what has not?

Short Answer Questions:

1. Explain the contrast given in the last two lines of the first stanza.
2. How does the poet feel when she remembers the sea holiday of her mother?
3. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
4. What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?
5. What do you learn about the poet’s mother from the photograph?