A Photograph by Shirley Toulson | Poem Analysis

‘A Photograph’ is a powerful poem about loss, memory, and time. Despite the fact that it focuses on one
speaker’s mother and a very specific photograph, it is incredibly moving and relatable. Everyone has
experienced loss of some kind and in the lines of this poem, Toulson taps into what that loss feels like
when one looks back on it years later. One of the most interesting elements of this poem is the way that
the photograph features. It is a source of nostalgia for the mother, but also for the daughter when she
looks at it, thinks of her mother as a young girl, and then thinks about looking at the same photograph
with her mother.

A Photograph by Shirley Toulson

Summary of A Photograph

‘A Photograph’ by Shirley Toulson is a beautiful poem in which a speaker recalls memories of her
deceased mother.

In the first part of ‘A Photograph,’ the speaker describes looking at a photograph of her mother as a
child. Through this, she is able to get across her feelings about time and how quickly it moves.
Somethings, like the sea, stay the same while her mother did not. The second part of the poem takes the
scene into the speaker’s own life when she was looking at the same photo with her mother. She recalls
the sound of her mother’s laugh and how she hasn’t heard it for several years.

Themes in A Photograph

Toulson explores several important themes in ‘A Photograph’. The most prominent are loss/mourning
and memories. The entire poem is centered around the speaker’s recollections from her own life and
her recollections of her mother’s memories. She feels both sorrow and joy as she recalls her mother’s
words when the two looked at the photograph together. So much time has passed since the image was
taken, and since she looked at it with her mother. But, it’s clear from the poem that the memories of
those moments are still strong in her mind.

Structure and Form

‘A Photograph’ by Shirley Toulson is a nineteen line poem that is contained within one stanza of text.
The lines are written in free verse, meaning that they do not follow a specific rhyme scheme or metrical
pattern. But, that being said, it does not mean that the poem is entirely without rhyme or meter. There
are several examples of half-rhyme scattered throughout the poem that help to give it the feeling of
rhyme without forcing the poet to conform to a specific patter. For example, “sea” and “feet” in lines
eight and nine as well as the “l” consonant sound in “laboured,” “loss,” and “lived” near the end of the
poem.

Literary Devices

Following literary devices/figures of speech have been used in the poem A Photograph:
Toulson makes use of several literary devices in ‘A Photograph’. These include but are not limited to
caesura, alliteration, and imagery. The first of these can be seen several times in the text when the poet
breaks lines with punctuation. For example, line four reads: “And she the big girl – some twelve years or
so” or line ten: “She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty’’’.

Allusion In the poem, the word ‘cardboard’ stands for the frame that supports and borders the
photograph. The photograph shows the poet’s mother as a twelve year old girl with two of her cousins,
Betty and Dolly. The word ‘cardboard’ has been used to depict that the photograph is many years old.

Imagery is one of the most important techniques at work in any poem. Without successful crafting
images, poems are unable to connect with the reader’s imagination. The best images encourage the
reader to use a variety of senses in order to imagine them. A good example can be seen in lines eight
and nine. They read: “And the sea, which appears to have changed less / Washed their terribly transient
feet.

Alliteration: It is the use of the same sound at the beginning of words that are close together. E.g. “my
mother’s hands”, “stood still to smile”, “terribly transient feet”, “silence silences”.

Transferred Epithet: It is a literary device in which an adjective is usually used to describe one thing is
transferred to another. E.g. “washed their terribly transient feet”.

Personification: It is the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things and animals. E.g.
“The cardboard shows me how it was”. Here the cardboard is acting like humans.

Oxymoron: It is the combination of two words that seem to be the opposite of each other. E.g.
“laboured ease”.

Analysis of A Photograph

Lines 1-9

The cardboard shows me how it was

When the two girl cousins went paddling…

Washed their terribly transient feet.

In the first lines of ‘A Photograph,’ the speaker begins by using the word “cardboard” to refer to a
photograph. Unlike the photographs of today, in the pre-digital era, photos were printed on thick photo
paper similar to cardboard. This photograph reminds her of a time when “two girl cousins went
paddling”. In the photo, she sees them hoping hands with her mother who at that time was only twelve
years old. This photograph was taken long before the speaker was born but it is still capable of bringing
back feelings of nostalgia for her.
There is an interesting moment in line eight when the speaker refers to the sea at their feet. It “appears
to have changed less,” she says. This is in reference to the immense changes that came over the young
women in the image. They grew up, at least one had children and has since died. In order to drive this
point home, the speaker then adds that the girls have “terrible transient feet”. Besides being a great
example of alliteration, this line also reminds the reader how time and change never stop progressing.

Lines 10-19

Some twenty- thirty- years later

She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty

There is nothing to say at all,

Its silence silences.

In the next lines of ‘A Photograph,’ the speaker takes the reader into her lifetime when “twenty-thirty-
years later” (suggesting that she doesn’t quite know how long ago it was) her mother laughed with her
at the photograph. She speaks about the “girl cousins,” “Betty” and “Dolly”. This was a tender memory
in her mother’s past and the speaker compares it to an important one of her own—her mother’s laugh.
This is the first concrete evidence that the reader has that the mother has passed away.

In the last lines, the speaker reveals that it has in fact been twelve years since her mother died. Her
memories of her have shifted somewhat in that period but she still gets emotional when she spends this
time thinking about her. The poem concludes with the speaker saying that there is “nothing to say at all”
about the loss or the period since. This suggests that she doesn’t quite have the words to describe it or
that there really are no words to adequately convey the ravages of time. .

A Photograph Question Answers

Think it out

1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

Ans: In the poem, the word ‘cardboard’ means a frame which supports the photograph. This word had
been used in the poem because the picture is very old when the cardboard was used as a photo frame.

2. What has the camera captured?

Ans: The camera has captured the poet’s mother and her two cousins, Betty and Dolly, on the beach.
They went for paddling where her mother’s uncle captured the photo in between the moment. Her
mother was around twelve years old and was in the middle. She was holding the hands of her cousins
who were on the side of her. It was her mother’s favourite past memories.
 3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

Ans: The lines ‘And the sea, which appears to have changed less’ depicts that the sea which touched her
mother’s feet is the one which has not changed over the years. Whereas, her mother and her cousins
grew older. The sea symbolises eternity and immortality. Human being has a life span and has to die one
day. Life is not permanent. The poet is sad about her mother’s demise twelve years ago and her laugh is
her favourite past memory.

4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?

Ans: The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot recalling her favourite past memories. She looked back
at the photograph and remembered how their parents would dress them up for the beach holiday. Her
laugh indicated her remembering the innocent days and the nostalgia feeling. Behind the laugh is also a
feeling of pain that those days won’t be back.

5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.”

Ans: the above lines means that the poet’s mother felt pain whenever she saw the old photograph
because the innocent childhood days would never be back. Those are just the memories. While the poet
has lost his mother twelve years ago and she misses her a lot and recalls her laughing and pointing out
the outfits they used to wear at the beach holidays. Both of them lost something.

6. What does “this circumstance” refer to?

Ans: The words ‘this circumstance’ refers to the present situation of the poet which is the painful
memories of her mother who have been deceased twelve years ago. While looking at the old
photograph of her mother’s childhood makes her miss her more. She remembers her laughing and how
the photograph was her favourite past memory.

7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

Ans: the first stanza depicts her mother’s childhood days when she was twelve years old or so. It talks
about a photograph of her with her two cousins on a beach holiday. Her uncle took the photograph. Her
mother changed over the years as she grew older. While the sea which touched their feet in that beach
holiday hadn’t changed over the years.

In the second stanza, the poet talks about her childhood days when her mother used to look at the
photograph recalls everything mentioned in the first stanza.

In the last stanza, the poet shares that her mother is dead as many years ago as was her age in the
photograph. She died twelve years ago. The poet is recalling her mother’s old memories while looking at
the photograph. She is in pain and misses her deceased mother. She has no words to describe her grief.