A Photograph Question Answer Chapter 1 Solved PDF

1. What does the word 'cardboard' denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Answer: The word 'cardboard' denotes the cardboard photograph on which the old photograph is mounted. The poet uses this word because the photograph is pasted on a piece of cardboard and has preserved the memory of her mother's childhood.

2. What has the camera captured?
Answer: The camera has captured a photograph of the poet's mother as a young girl with her two girl cousins, Betty and Dolly. They were standing on the beach, holding hands and smiling at the uncle who was taking their photograph.

3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Answer: The sea has not changed much over the years. The poet says that it appears to have changed less than the people in the photograph. This suggests that nature is more permanent, while human life is temporary and constantly changing.

4. The poet's mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Answer: Her laugh indicated that she remembered her childhood with amusement. She laughed at the way she and her cousins had been dressed for the beach. It also showed her affectionate remembrance of her childhood days.

5. What is the meaning of the line "Both wry with the laboured ease of loss."
Answer: The line means that both the poet and her mother experienced the pain of loss. The mother felt the loss of her childhood, while the poet feels the loss of her mother. They tried to accept these losses, but the acceptance was painful and difficult.

6. What does "this circumstance" refer to?
Answer: "This circumstance" refers to the death of the poet's mother. The poet says that her mother has now been dead for nearly as many years as the girl in the photograph had lived.

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

Answer:

First stanza: It describes the poet's mother as a young girl in the photograph with her two cousins at the beach.

Second stanza: It describes the mother as an adult looking at the photograph and laughing at the memory of her childhood.

Third stanza: It describes the poet's feelings after her mother's death and the silence and loss caused by her death.