PHOTOGRAPH BY SHIRLEY TAULSON

#PHOTOGRAPH BY SHIRLEY TAULSON
Short Summay
A Photograph by Shirley Toulson is a poem
about the poet’s memories of her mother. The
poet looks at an old photograph showing her
mother as a young girl enjoying a beach
holiday with her cousins. She recalls how her
mother used to laugh at the picture years
later. Now that the mother is no more, the
poet feels
deep sadness. The poem highlights the
contrast between the permanence of nature
and the short, fragile nature of human life.
#1. Who wrote the poem “A Photograph”?
— Shirley Toulson.
2. What does the cardboard show?
— A photograph of the poet’s mother and her cousins at the beach.
3. How old was the poet’s mother in the photograph?
— Around twelve years old.
4. Who took the photograph?
— The girls’ uncle.
5. What were the girls doing in the picture?
— They were paddling in the sea.
#6. What covered their faces in the picture?
— Their hair blown by the wind.
7. What has changed less over the years?
— The sea.
8. Who laughed at the snapshot?
— The poet’s mother.
9. What did the mother find funny in the picture?
— Their beach dresses.
10. What was the poet’s past?
— Her mother’s laughter.
11. What does #‘transient feet’ indicate?
— The short-lived nature of human life.
12. Why is the poet silent at the end?
— Because the loss of her mother leaves her speechless.
13. What emotion runs through the poem?
— #Nostalgia mixed with grief.
14. How many years had the mother been dead?
— Nearly as many years as she had lived in the photo.
15. What finally silences the poet?
— The deep pain of her mother’s absence.
A #Photograph.
#Theme of the Poem
1. Transience of Life – Human life is
temporary, whereas nature remains unchanged.

2. Loss and Grief – The poet mourns her
mother’s death and feels an emotional silence.

3. Memory and Nostalgia – A photograph
preserves happy moments from the past.

4. Passage of Time – Time changes people
but not the memories captured in photographs.
#Poetic Devices Used in the Poem
1. #Imagery
“All three stood still to smile through their hair”
Creates a visual picture of the girls at the beach.
2. #Alliteration
“stood still”
“terribly transient”
Repetition of consonant sounds.
3. #Metaphor
“The cardboard shows me…”
The photograph is compared to ‘cardboard’.
4. #Personification
“Its silence silences.”
Silence is given a human action.

5. #Transferred Epithet
“laboured ease of loss”
The feelings are transferred to the phrase.

6. #Contrast
Human life vs. unchanged sea.
Past happiness vs. present grief.

7. #Irony
The mother once laughed at the photo, but now the poet is silent because of her death.
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