Hornbill Poem1: A Photograph

A. Infer the meanings of the following words from the context: paddling, transient
Answer: ‘Paddling’ means ‘walking or standing with bare feet in shallow water’.
‘Went paddling’ means ‘swam with short movements of hands or feet up and down’.
‘Transient’ means temporary or staying in a place for only short time.

Think It Out

Question 1: What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Answer: The word cardboard denotes the photograph pasted on a hard thick paper. This word has been used to
refer to a practice in the past when photographs were pasted on cardboard and framed with glass front to preserve
them.

Question 2: What has the camera captured?

Answer: The camera has captured the three girls—the poet’s mother and her two cousins, Betty and Dolly, with the
poet’s mother in the middle and the two cousins on either side holding her hands with their feet in sea water. Their
smile is visible through their hair scattered on their faces.

Question 3: What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Answer: The sea has not changed over the years. Its waves are as fresh, shining and tireless as they were years ago.
Whereas, the girls in that photograph stopped being so young and have grown up since then. Their childhood didn’t
last very long. Thus, the sea here symbolizes eternity, against the infinite vastness of which human lives appear even
more temporary in comparison. The sea is immortal, whereas, humans are mortal.

Question 4: The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Answer: This laugh indicated her joy at remembering an incident connected with her past life, when she was quite
young and free from the tensions and worries of life. It may also be hiding her pain at the loss of her childhood.

Question 5: What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”.
Answer: The sea holiday and the laughter of the poet’s mother are incidents of the past. There is a sense of loss
associated with them which is quite painful to bear. The memories of the past makes the two women feel
disappointed as they try hard to come to terms with what they have lost. The poet’s mother has lost her childhood
and the poet has lost her mother’s laughter as she is not alive.

Question 6: What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?

Answer: This circumstance refers to the death of the poet’s mother.

Question 7: The three stanzas depict three different phases. Name them.
Answer: The girlhood of the poet’s mother—the period before the birth of the poet.

1. Her middle age—the period during the childhood of the poet

2. The period after the death of the poet’s mother.

Short Answer Type Extra Questions

Question 1: What do you learn about the poet’s mother from the photograph?
Answer: The poet’s mother was a big girl even at the age of twelve/bigger than her cousins. She had a sweet face
and enjoyed swimming as well as wading in sea-water with her cousins. Years later she laughed at the clothes they
had put on for the sea holiday.

Question 2: How did the three girls face the camera?

Answer: They had scattered hair on their face and stood smiling in the shallow water near the beach. Betty and Dolly
stood on either side of the poet’s mother, each holding one of her hands.

Question 3: What do you think, made the poet’s mother laugh?

Answer: The dress and behaviour of her cousins Betty and Dolly made the poet’s mother laugh. It is evident that
they had put on some quaint dress, which amused her.
Question 4: Why, do you think, does the poet say nothing about her mother’s death?
Answer: The poet has no words to express her reaction to this solemn and painful incident. Death silences everyone.
The extensive quietness and prevailing gloom silences her.

Long Answer Type Extra Question

Question 1: What impression do you form of the poet and the poet’s mother after reading the poem A Photograph’?
Answer: The poem presents the poet as a sensitive person who is quite affectionate towards her mother and is
deeply attached to her. She loves her sweet face and notes the changes in it as she advances in age. She remembers
all the incidents connected with her life including her laughter on looking at the photograph. She finds it hard to bear
her death. The pangs of separation stun her to speechlessness.
The poet’s mother appears as a person with a sweet face and beautiful smile. She has a friendly temperament and
free mixing nature. She has great affection for her two girl cousins and goes with them for a sea-holiday where they
put on quaint dresses. She poses with them smilingly for a snap. Her laughter on seeing the dresses in the snap
shows her fine temperament and good humour.

Poetic Devices

Allusion: An allusion is a reference or an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication. An

example of allusion in this poem is ‘cardboard’ which actually refers to the photograph.

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the initial letter (generally a consonant) of several words marking the
stressed syllable in a line of poem. Examples of alliteration in this poem are ‘stood still to smile’, ‘terribly transient’,
‘Its silence silences’ etc.

Transferred Epithet: A transferred epithet is a description that refers to a character or event but is used to describe
a different situation or character. ‘Transient feet’ is an example of the transferred epithet in the poem. It refers to
human feet but it is used to describe the lack of permanence of human life.

Oxymoron: In this literary device, there are two opposite ideas that are joined to create an effect. ‘Laboured ease’ in
the poem is an example of an oxymoron. Laboured meaning with ‘great difficulty’ and ease means ‘comfortably’.
Both words have opposite meanings but here they are clubbed together.

Personification: The example is ‘Its silence silences.’ The situation has been given the human quality of silence.

MCQs

1. Who is the poet/poet of the poem 'A Photograph'?

A. Shirley Toulson
B. Rudyard Kipling
C. Elizabeth Jennings
D. Markus Natten

2. What is the poem 'A Photograph' about?

A. About poet's childhood memories
B. tribute to the poet’s mother
C. Poet's photograph
D. Poet's father

3. What was the age of the poet's mother when the photograph was taken?
A. eleven years old
B. thirteen years old
C. twelve years old
D. fourteen year old

4. When did her mother die?

A. two years ago
B. five years ago
C. thirteen years ago
D. twelve years ago

5. How many people were in the photograph?

A. two girls
B. three girls
C. two girls and one boy
D. only her mother

6. Which material was the frame of the photograph made of?

A. Cardboard
B. Wood
C. Steel
D. Plastic

7. Who are on both sides of her mother?

A. Cousins, Betty and Dolly
B. Parents
C. Cousins, Dolly and Adam
D. Friends

8. What are the three of them doing in the photograph?

A. playing
B. standing beside house
C. holding hands
D. holding hands and went for paddling

9. Who took the photograph of her mother with her cousin?

A. Her grandfather
B. Her uncle
C. Her mother's friend
D. Her grandmother

10. What does 'Terribly Transient Feet' mean in the poem?

A. her feet represent the mother, who changed with time while the sea remained the same
B. temporary situation
C. age is temporary
D. None of the above

11. After how many years did her mother laugh on seeing the photograph?
A. twenty-one
B. twenty-three
C. twelve
D. twenty-five

12. What was the favourite memory of her mother?

A. beach holidays
B. school memories
C. vacations
D. None of the above

13. What was the favourite memory of the poet?

A. her mother's memories
B. her mother's laughter
C. her own vacation memories
D. her childhood memories
14. What would the mother show to her daughter while showing her the photograph?
A. how her parents dressed her for the beach
B. her cousins
C. her own childhood photograph
D. the background

15. What is the meaning of the word 'wry'?

A. ironic
B. cry
C. sad
D. None of the above

16. What Oxymoron literary device was used in the poem?

A. Terribly transient
B. Through their
C. Both wry
D. Laboured ease

17. What Epithet literary device was used in the poem?

A. Terribly transient
B. Through their
C. Both wry
D. Laboured ease

18. How many phases were depicted in the poem by the poet?
A. one
B. two
C. three
D. four

19. What was the last phase in the poem?

A. after her mother died
B. after she grown up
C. after her mother grown up
D. None of the above

20. What does she feel in the last phase?

A. pain and grief
B. happy and nostalgic
C. sad and nostalgic
D. pain and nostalgic

Answer key

Q. No. Answer Q. No. Answer

1 A 11 B

2 B 12 A

3 C 13 B

4 D 14 A

5 B 15 A
 6 A 16 D

7 A 17 A

8 D 18 C

9 B 19 A

10 A 20 A

A Photograph Poem Explanation

Line 1 – 4:
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

Paddling – walking

In these lines, the poet is looking at an old photo album which is made up of cardboard. In the picture, there are
three girls who are walking on the beach holding each other’s hands. The girl in the middle is the tallest and oldest,
the other two girls on each side are younger than her. The girl in the middle is the poet’s mother. She is around
twelve years old when the picture was taken.

Line 5 – 9:
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.
And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet

Transient – short-term; temporary

In the above lines, the poet describes how the photograph was taken. Her mother’s uncle took the photograph and
told them to stop and pose. All three of them left their wet hair open and smiled at the camera. The poet’s attention
is drawn towards his mother’s face which is described as a ‘sweet face’. The photograph was taken long before the
poet was born. The poet calls their feet ‘terrible transient’ as they were so young by then and now they had grown
older. On the other hand, the sea which touched their feet has changed less.

Line 10 – 13:
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.” The sea holiday

Snapshot – photograph

After twenty-thirty years later, she would laugh at the photograph. She would tell me to look at her cousins, Betty
and Dolly and how their parents would dress all three of them up for the beach. They would have planned to take a
photograph beforehand.
Line 14 – 15:
Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.

Wry – ironic; mocking; here, sad

The poet recalls the sea holiday was her mother’s happy moment from the past. Whereas, the poet’s memorable
moment from the past was her mother’s laughter. Both the women would think about those past memories which
they cannot live again. They tried their best to adjust to what they lost.

Line 16 – 19:
Now she’s been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.

Silence – a complete absence of sound

In the above lines, the poet says that her mother died twelve years ago, the same age her mother was in the
photograph. Whenever the poet thinks of her mother’s death, she cannot explain what effect she has of her
mother’s death. Death has silenced her mother which has also left her speechless.