Summary : Poem 1 - A Photograph Class 11 English Hornbill

Key Points of the Poem

• The poem is about memory, loss, and time.
• The poet looks at a photograph of her mother as a young girl, which reminds her of the past.
• The photograph shows the mother on the beach with her cousins, smiling, before the poet was born.
• The mother laughs at their beach clothes and remembers her youth.
• The picture shows the mother’s younger self compared to her ageing self now, showing the passage of time.
• The sea in the photograph remains unchanged, unlike human life.
• The poet then reflects on her mother’s death, which has left a silence.
• The poem shows the poet’s grief and her inability to express her feelings after her mother’s death.
• The final thought is the silence left behind, showing the sorrow that words cannot express.
  
  

Detailed Summary  

As the poem progresses, the poet reflects on how her mother has grown older. She notices that the sea in the photograph looks the same, but her mother and her cousins have changed over time. Her mother is no longer alive. The photograph shows a moment that stayed the same, while the sea shows the continuity of life and the passing of time.

The poem ends with the poet feeling the silence after her mother’s death. This silence shows her deep grief and her inability to express the pain of losing her mother.

Conclusion  

Literary Devices

1. Imagery:

   • "The sea… washed their terribly transient feet": Shows that human life is short, but the sea is eternal.

   • "All three stood still to smile through their hair": Creates a clear picture of the girls enjoying their youth.

2. Metaphor:

   • "Laboured ease of loss": Means that dealing with loss is difficult but something we must accept.

3. Oxymoron:

   • "Laboured ease": Uses opposite words together to show how grief is both heavy and something we learn to live with. It shows the complexity of grief.

4. Alliteration:

   • "Terribly transient": The repeated ‘t’ sound is the alliteration, and it highlights how short life is.

5. Symbolism:

   • The sea: Represents timelessness.

   • The photograph: Stands for memory and the past.

6. Repetition:

   • "Silence silences": Repeats the word to show deep grief that cannot be put into words.

Difficult Words

• Paddling = wading, splashing 
• Transient = fleeting, temporary 
• Snapshot = photo, picture
• Dressed = clothed, attired 
• Beach = seashore, coastline 
• Wry = twisted, skewed
• Laboured = effortful, strained
• Circumstance = situation, scenario