A Photograph- Shirley Toulson

 A Photograph- Shirley Toulson

We can capture the glimpses of our past through photographs. Often when at later stage we look at such collection, we feel nostalgic about those days, we long for those days. Photographs become stark reality of our lives when we feel too much obsessed with them. We go through a lot of pain to overcome such memories. The theme of the poem is to show transient nature of human lives. Mutability is another theme of the poem. Sea is static whereas the human lives are liable to be changed.

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.

                                                     

Stanza 1:- 

Cardboard- a stiff surface on which a photograph is pasted

Paddling- walking in shallow water bare footed

Big girl- eldest girl among the three

Transient- short-lived, temporary

Summary:- The speaker is looking at the photograph which describes her mother who is wading through water along with two cousins. Each cousin is holding either hand of the mother. She looks about twelve years old in the photograph. They are posing for the photograph and looking at the uncle with the camera. The mother has a sweet face. The photograph was taken when the speaking was yet to born. The sea water seems to wash their feet.

"Smile through their hair" - while they were getting ready with smiley faces for the photo, it was because of the breeze blowing that their hair were coming onto their faces.

And the sea, which appears to have changed less,

Washed their terribly transient feet.

The sea which symbolizes eternity is seen in contrast to the transient nature of human life. There is Contrast used in these lines. On the one hand we have eternal life of the sea as compared to the temporariness of the human life.

Stanza 2:-

wry- distorted 

Summary:- After some twenty-thirty years later, the mother would look at the photograph and laugh at the way the two cousins would get her ready for the sea holiday. Both have suffered a sense of loss and both the mother and the speaker cannot enjoy their pastime. 

Sea holiday was her past, mine is her laughter- the mother would enjoy her sea holiday which she couldn't enjoy perhaps after her marriage whereas the speaker used to enjoy her mother's laughter which she misses now as the mother is no more.

Both wry with the laboured ease of loss- 'Both' is referred to the mother's sea holiday and speaker's memory of mother's laughter. Both have suffered a loss hence its 'wry'. Perhaps the mother could not enjoy her sea holiday afterwards because of the constraints of married life. Perhaps the responsibility to look after the kids had fallen on her in absence of her husband and hence she was bereft of all the pleasure from her life. As the mother was striving hard to make both ends meet she could not laugh and so the speaker misses her mother's laughter.

Laboured ease of loss:- There is labour in the loss as it is really difficult for anybody to forget the sweet memories of the past and go on. There is ease in the loss as time acts as a healer. However the great pain may be, the intensity of the pain decreases with the time.

Stanza 3:-

Summary:- Now the mother has died as many years ago as that girl looked in the photograph. The death of the mother has left the speaker with no words. It's the silence that surrounds her.

this circumstance:- refers to the death of the mother

Its silence silences:-  The first 'silence' is referred to the death metaphorically. Wherever death prevails, there remains silence. It is the death (silence) of the mother that leaves the speaker without words (silences).

Critical Appreciation:-

The poem is divided in three stages:- 1. Mother's days of enjoyment when she was not married

2.Married life of the mother

3. Death of the mother

Poetic devices:

1. Contrast:- When the opposite ideas are brought together.

"And the sea which appears to have changed less,

Washedt theirterribly transient feet."

2. Transferred Epithet:- Epithet means word'

'terriblytransient feet' actual meaning is the feet which are terribly transient.

3. Alliteration:-  When the consonant sounds are repeated in a line. 

'stood still to smile' 'terribly transient' & 'Its silence silences'

4.Oxymoron:- a combination of contradictory words

                'laboured ease'

Why is the word Cardboard used in stead of 'photo frame'?

Cardboard denotes the withering away. The photo is not intact with a frame or glass. As the human life goes on withering in the same way the photograph which is pasted on a cardboard is withering away. It's change which is one of the themes of the poem hence the word cardboard is used.  

She the big girl:- see the irony that though in the photo she is the big girl and they are dominant in the photo, they couldn't sustain much. Sea is still there but not the mother.