The poem A Photograph is written by Shirley Toulson in the memory of her dead mother.
In
the poem, the poet sees a photograph of her mother and goes into reminiscence.
She remembers when her mother used to tell her about that photograph and would miss her
youth. In the end, the poet feels sad because of the loss of her mother. So, there the poem is
pessimistic and deals with the theme of loss.
The poet says that she happens to look at an old photograph of her mother which has a
cardboard frame. In the photo there are three people, two of them are cousins of the poet and
the third one is her mother. They had gone for paddling (swimming).
In the photo both cousins have held poet mother’s hands . Poet calls her mother as big girl.
who was approximately twelve years old then.
Now, in this stanza, we find symbols and images. The first image is cardboard. In old times,
the photos were framed in cardboards. With time, the cardboard also gets old and thus it
symbolises past time.Next, the girl cousins are holding the hands of poet’s mother which
depicts motherly nature towards them.
According to the poet, all three (poet’s mother and her two cousins) were standing still to
smile through their hair. The phrase “smiling through their hair” symbolises their joy on the
beach. They were smiling so wildly that even their hair were waving in the air.
They were all looking at the uncle who was holding a camera to take their picture. The poet is
mesmerised by the sweet face of her young mother during the time when she (poet) was not
born. In other words, the poet says that her mother was beautiful during her youth.
In the next line, the poet says that the sea which has not changed over the years was washing
their transient (short lived) feet terribly. This line is symbolic. The poet is comparing the sea
with her mother. According to her, the sea has remains as is throughout the years. However
her mother grew old and changed a lot.
The word “transient feet” is acting as transferred epithet and refers to humans who grow old
quickly and finally die. The word “terribly” refers to the strong waves which were flowing
over the feet of her mother and cousins.
Till here, the first period of time has been described i.e. the youth of her mother
In the next stanza, the poet thinks of a later time i.e. around 20-30 years after the photo was
taken and when her mother grew old. The poet and her mother were looking at the same
photo.
While seeing the photo, poet’s mother laughs and asks her daughter (the poet) to see how
Betty and Dolly (poet’s cousins) and how they all were dressed for beach. Again this
movement (with her mother) is a past memory for the poet.
Now the poet comes to present time. According to her, the sea holiday was the sweet memory
of her mother while her (mother’s) laughter (described above) is poet’s memory because she
(her mother) is no more. In other words, like her mother was thinking of her youth joys while
seeing the photo, the poet thinks of her mother while seeing the same photo.
According to the poet, both she and her mother wry with the laboured ease of loss. In other
words, both laugh while memorising something which they enjoyed a lot and both have lost.
Laboured ease of loss refers to our acceptance of loss after great sorrow and living with it.
According to the poet, her mother is dead for as many years as her mother’s age in the photo
i.e. 12 years. And now, she is so sorrowful over the loss (of her mother) that she cannot
express it.
After seeing the photo and remembering all those events and joy, there is absolute silence on
the face of the poet because of grief.
