A Photograph
By- Shirley Toulson
Very Short Answer Type Important Questions
1. What did the cardboard picture capture?
Ans. The cardboard snapshot captured the happy faces of three cousins enjoying a sea-holiday.
2. What do you think made the poetess’s mother laugh?
Ans. He looks at the age of 12 and her pretty beach dress as captured in the photo made her laugh.
3. When and where were the three cousins photographed?
Ans. Â The three girls were photographed by their uncle on the sea beach. They had gone there on a pleasure trip. They stood in the shallow water with sea waves washing their feet.
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4. What does the poetess mean by ‘their terribly transient feet’?
Ans. The dictionary meaning of the word transient is brief and fleeting. The three girls were at a growing age. They underwent notable changes as time passed. But the sea suffered no change over the years. The expression highlights the contrast between mortal man and timeless, ageless sea.
5. Explain: The sea holiday was her past, mine is her laughter.
Ans. The determiner ‘her’ at both places refers to the poetess’s mother. The picture taken during the sea holiday 20-30 years ago made the mother laugh. Her sea holiday was her past. But twelve years after the mother’s death, her daughter has now become a thing of the past for the poetess.
6. Now she’s been dead nearly as many years as that girl lived. How many years have passed since the mother’s death?
Ans. Twelve years have passed since the mother’s death.
7. Explain Its silence silences.
Ans. The period of nearly twelve years since the poetess’s mother passed away, has been painful for the poet. She can not hear her laughter anymore. There is only silence now and the poet has to bear her loss in silence.
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