A Photograph
Infer the meanings of the following words from the context
| paddling transient |
Now look up the dictionary to see if your inference is right.
Answer:
Paddling is rowing a boat or walking in shallow water.
Transient refers to temporary.
Dictionary Meaning:
Paddling is standing or walking in shallow water with bare feet.
Paddling also means rowing a boat.
Paddling is swimming with short movements of feet or hands up and down.
Transient is staying in a place for a short period of time.
Think it Out
1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Answer:
In the poem, the word ‘cardboard’ indicates the photograph which is glued on a paper that is hard and thick. It has been used to describe the old practices when the photographs were glued on cardboard and framed with glass in front in order to preserve them.
2. What has the camera captured?
Answer:
The camera has captured three girls – the mother of the poet and her two cousins, Dolly and Betty, in their swimming dress on either side of the poet’s mother holding her hands and walking with feet in sea water.
3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
Answer:
Over the years, the sea has not changed. Its waves are tireless, shining and fresh as they were in the old days. The changes that occur in a human face with growing age is reminded by the changelessness of the sea.
4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Answer:
This laugh indicates her joy at remembering the incident that connected with her past life, when she was young and free from worries and tensions of life.
5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.”
Answer:
The poet’s mother’s laughter and the sea holiday are the incidents from the past. A sense of loss is connected with them. Both are amusing and disappointing as a relaxed or comfortable feeling is a forced one or unnatural. This sense of loss is painful to bear. Also, the phrase ‘laboured ease’ is an oxymoron because it joins together two opposite ideas to make a meaningful idea, here, the sense of loss.
6. What does “this circumstance” refer to?
Answer:
“This circumstance” refers to the death of the poet’s mother.
7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Answer:
1. Girlhood of the poet’s mother – The phase before the poet’s birth.
2. Middle age – The phase during the poet’s childhood.
3. Death – The phase after the death of the poet’s mother.