A Photograph

Extra Questions

Short answer type questions

1. What is the significance of the ‘cardboard’ frame?
2. What tone has the poet adopted in the poem?
3. What comparison between the sea and human beings has been drawn in the
second stanza?
4. What emotions do you associate with the mother looking at the photograph?
5. What emotions would you associate with Shirley as she looks at the photograph?
6. What is the significance of ‘sea holiday’ in this poem?
7. Why does the poet seem to have nothing to say about the ‘circumstance’?
8. What is silenced and how has it silenced the poet?
Long answer type questions
1. Each photograph is a memory. Justify the statement, in the light of the poem.
2. A photograph captures a moment in time. Discuss with reference to one of your
favourite photographs.
3. You are the uncle who took the photograph of your mother. At her birthday this
year, you came across a copy of this poem. Write a letter to your niece, Shirley,
remembering the day at the beach.
4. When we look at something, it looks right back at us. Imagine that you are a
photograph, (not necessarily the one in the poem). Write a diary entry
commenting on the various people who have come into your life.
5. We only realise the significance of something or someone in our lives, in their
absence. Discuss with reference to the text and your real life.
6. How does the poet connect the girls’ terrible transience with the scene?
7. "Both thrive with the laboured ease of loss" Describe the ironical situation.
8. Explain the line " the sea holiday as a past, mine is her laughter, Time spares
none".