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A Photograph: by Shirley Toulson

The poem recalls the poet looking at an old photograph of her mother from childhood. The photograph shows the poet's mother at around 12 years old on the beach with her two cousins. The poet reflects on her mother's sweet face in the picture and how the sea has remained unchanged while her mother transformed over the years. Later in life, the poet's mother would laugh while looking at the photo, but she has now been dead for nearly as long as she was in the picture. The poet is left with only silence to express the grief of her mother's absence.

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604 views9 pages

A Photograph: by Shirley Toulson

The poem recalls the poet looking at an old photograph of her mother from childhood. The photograph shows the poet's mother at around 12 years old on the beach with her two cousins. The poet reflects on her mother's sweet face in the picture and how the sea has remained unchanged while her mother transformed over the years. Later in life, the poet's mother would laugh while looking at the photo, but she has now been dead for nearly as long as she was in the picture. The poet is left with only silence to express the grief of her mother's absence.

Uploaded by

lol doll
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
  • A Photograph
  • About the Poet
  • Introduction
  • Vocabulary and Literary Devices
  • Poem Text
  • Continued Poem Text
  • Gist (Part 1)
  • Gist (Part 2)
  • Useful Links

A Photograph

By Shirley Toulson
About the Poet

Shirley Toulson was born on 20th May 1924 in


Henley-on-Thames, England as the daughter of
Douglas Horsfall Dixon and Marjorie Brown.
She had a huge passion for writing and was
greatly influenced by her father who was a
writer too. She studied B.A (Literature) from
Brockenhurst College in London in the year
1953. Shortly, she took writing as career but
also served as the editor for many magazines in
meantime.
Introduction

The poem ‘A Photograph’ is written by Shirley Toulson. In this


poem, she recalls her mother and her memories while looking at
a childhood photograph when her mother was twelve years old
or so. She cannot explain her grief on her mother’s loss.
Vocabulary
Paddling – walking
Transient – short-term; temporary
Snapshot – photograph
Literary Devices:
Alliteration - repetition of a consonant sound at the
beginning of two or more consecutive words. The instances
of alliteration in the poem are as follows– Stood still,
Through their, My mother’s
Epithet - a phrase expressing a quality of a person or
something
- Terribly transient
Oxymoron - a term which contradicts itself - Laboured ease
A Photograph (Poem)

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.
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.
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.

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.
Gist:
The poem is a tribute to the poet’s mother. She is looking at an old
photograph of her mother which has a frame of cardboard. The
picture has three girls in which the middle one is the oldest and
tallest.
It is her mother when she was twelve years old or so. Beside her, on
both sides are her two cousins, Betty and Dolly, who are holding her
hands and are younger than her. They went for paddling on a beach
holiday. Her uncle took the photograph then. The poet could not help
but notice her mother’s sweet face. The sea touched her terribly
transient feet which depicted that she changed over the years and
the sea remained the same.
Gist:
After twenty-thirty years, her mother would laugh at the photograph.
She would make the poet look at the photograph and tell her how
their parents would dress them up for the beach holiday. The beach
holiday was her mother’s favourite past memories while her laugh
was the poet's favourite memory. Both of them lost something which
they cherished a lot and yet cannot live that moment again. Those
sweet moments were memories now.
Now, the poet’s mother had been dead for the past twelve years,
which is the same number as of her age when the photograph was
taken back then. She cannot express the grief that she has from her
mother’s absence.
Useful Links:

[Link]
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