About the Poet

Shirley Toulson
(b. 1924 – d. 2018)
•Poet, teacher, educational journalist and editor, author
of books about walks along the ancient tracks and roads
of Britain.
•Lived in Somerset
•Drawn into spell of Celtic Christianity as she worked on
her books dealing with the oldest roads and folklore of
Britain and Ireland, and found herself following the
routes taken on their journeys by the saints of the early
church.
 A Photograph
• A tribute to her mother
• On finding an old photograph of
her mother, pasted on a
cardboard sheet, she remembers
her mother talking about it with
fondness and nostalgia.
 A Photograph
Explanation (Stanza wise)
Stanza 1 (Lines 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.

The first stanza is about the childhood of the poet’s mother. The
cardboard (photograph) shows to the narrator how it was that
day when her mother had gone on a beach holiday with two of
her cousins. Each of the cousins held one of her mother’s hands.
Her mother was the eldest – about twelve years old at that time.
Stanza 1 (Lines 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.

All three girls stood smiling, to pose for the photograph. Their
hair were strewn across their face because of the beach wind.
The mother’s uncle clicked their picture with a camera. Her
mother’s face was sweet at that time. And the picture was taken
much before the narrator was born. The sea in the picture is still
the same in all these years. (It has changed very less). The sea
seems to wash their feet which by nature, are transient because
human life is short-lived and mortal as compared to nature.
Stanza 2
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
was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.

This stanza is about the time when the poet’s mother Some twenty, thirty
years later from when the picture was taken, her mother had looked at
the snapshot and laughed. She had pointed out her cousin Betty and Dolly
and talked nostalgically about how oddly they used to be dressed for the
beach. The sea holiday was remembered by her mother with a fondness
as well as with a sense of loss because that time would never return.
Similarly, her laughter would never return to the narrator. The sea holiday
was the narrator’s mother’s past and her mother’s laughter is the
narrator’s past. The sense of loss has been difficult, yet easy as both have
laboured, and put an effort to cope up with it.
Stanza 3
Now she’s has been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all,
Its silence silences.

Now, it has been twelve years since her mother passed away.
The use of the words ‘that girl‘ indicate that the mother has
changed seems like a different person altogether. The cares and
responsibilities of her life, as well as time have made her more
mellowed and old. Her mother has passed away leaving behind
nothing but memories and photographs like this one. Nothing
can be said about death. It is a part of life, and it is really difficult
to express one’s feelings on losing someone very dear, especially
a parent. Thus, the silence of the whole situation has been
referred to as ‘this circumstance’, which silences the poet and leaves her
quiet.
 Central Idea of the Poem

Age and time do not wait for anyone. Time

keeps on moving and brings many happy and
sad moments and sad moments in our lives.

The poem also throws light on the mortal and

short lived aspect of mankind as compared to
nature, which is everlasting.
 Poetic Devices
Allusion - an implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or
thing or to a part of another text
 The cardboard (the lack of durability implies lack of
permanence of human life)
Alliteration - a literary device in which a series of words begin
with the same consonant sound
 stood still to smile
 laboured ease of loss
 terribly transient
 silence silences
Oxymoron - two words used together that have, or seem to
have, opposite meanings
 laboured ease of loss
 Poetic Devices
Transferred Epithet -
An epithet is an adjective or adverb which modifies a noun;
describes a place, a thing, or a person in such a way that it helps
in making its characteristics more prominent than they actually
are. Eg: chubby baby; naughty child.
In a Transferred Epithet,
Epithet is aan epithet literary
descriptive is transferred from its proper
device that
word to anotherdescribes a place, a thing, or a person in such a
that is closely associated with it in the sentence.
way that it helps in making its characteristics
Eg: in naughty class,
morethe adjective
prominent than‘naughty’
they actuallyisare
used to describe
the whole class of students who are naughty. The students
(children) can be naughty, not a class (classroom).
More egs: sleelpless night; hurried footsteps etc.
We use Transferred Epithets all the time.
Eg from the poem: laboured ease. It took the poet and her mother a
lot of effort to come to terms with their loss
 Poetic Devices
Personification – when human qualities are given to objects,
abstract qualities and animals. Eg from the poem: Its silence
silences. The silence of the whole situation has left the poet
speechless and gloomy.
More examples