A

PHOTOGRAPH
-by Shirley Toulson
1. Shirley Toulson was born on
20th May,1924 in England.
2. A Writer, Editor came under
influence of Celtic
Christianity.
3. Toulson In Poem
“Photograph” Describes the
emotions felt as she
remembered the story behind
the image and what it
means to the poet.
 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
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.
• 1. Death can numb you and leave you at a loss of words. The
finality of death and the loss cannot be expressed in words. Death
can silence you and leave you speechless" ....... " it's silence
silences".......

2. the mother missed her past, and found it amusing

, and the daughter missed her past with her mother
(i.e. the time she spent with her mother when she was
alive).

3. The words "transient feet" has a special significance-

-- they show how transient, temporary human life is as
compared to nature.
4. The poet realizes that she has lost her mother, and so
that "laboured ease of loss" sets in.
“laboured ease of loss" because :
--- it is difficult for her to forget her mother and
put behind her past and move on.
--- it has ease because the pain of the loss is
reduced
with time. TIME acts as a healer and the daughter
moves on.
So, even though she hasn't really forgotten her
mother, but then she is not even in as great a pain now
( 12 years after her mother’s death) as she was when
her mother died.
 The poet recalls the memory of
her late mother, gazing at the
frame, where the photograph of
her mom along with cousins Betty
and Dolly in their pre-teens. The
photo refers to one of their visits
to the sea-beach. At that time,
the mother's face had the
sweetness of a young girl.
Transient feet refers to the
transience of life.
She recalls how mom had looked at the
photo 20-30 yrs later and laughed at the
attires that she and her cousins were
wearing. The sea holiday was a thing of past
for her. Her smiling face had become a
thing of the past for the poet just as the
mother’s childhood had been for her. Both
of them( mom and poet) now move on
despite the losses.
Now, she has been dead for about 12 years.
The void in the life of the poet is the
‘silence’ and gloom that she feels.