Acknowledgement

I feel great pleasure in expressing my

gratitude to my principal and English teacher
Mrs Vasundhara Muralidhar for their
precious suggestions and guidance for the
completion of my English project activity
titled “Analysis Of Poem” I am really very
thankful to them.
I also acknowledge the contribution of my
parents and friends who always encouraged
and supported me to complete this project
within the limited time frame.
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Ishitha.C.D of class XII

has completed his/her English project titled
Analysis Of Poem under the guidance of Dr
Vasundhara Muralidhar for the academic
year 2022-23. The certified student has been
dedicated throughout his/her research and
completed her/his work before the stipulated
time without missing any important details
from the project. It is also certified that this
project is the individual work of the student
and can be submitted for evaluation.
 INDEX

Acknowledgement
 Certificate
 Objective
 Introduction of the Topic
 Explanation of the concept
 Summarizing and Conclusion
1st Stanza
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.

Explanation: The poet observes a photograph.

This photograph is from the day when the poet’s
mother and her two cousins went on a holiday to
visit and play on the seaside. Two girls held the
two hands of the poet’s mother who was the eldest
(and perhaps the tallest) among the three. At the
time of the photography by some person (maybe a
relative or a professional photographer) holding
the camera, three girls stood still and smiled. The
wild blew their hair and it may have covered the
faces of the three girls as the photo got clicked.
The poet admires the looks of her mother and
recollects how beautiful she looked before the birth
of the poet. And now, things have changed a lot.
The poet’s mother has died. The poet herself has
aged well. But the sea, the poet suggests, has
changed very little or not at all.

Critical Analysis & Poetic Devices

The poem does not follow any rhyme scheme or

lyrical pattern and it is written in free verse style.

‘Terribly transient feet of the girls is a metaphor

that represents mortality and the sea is a
metaphor that represents the force of nature

Alliteration, it is the use of similar consonant

sounds to create a sonorous impact in verse. In line
number 5 and 9, focus on the words stood, still,
smile, terribly and transient.

2nd Stanza
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
was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss.
Explanation: The poet recalls how her mother,
after two-three decades from the day the
photograph was taken, laughed at the photo and
told the poet about her aunts Betty and Dolly (the
poet’s mother’s cousins) and the way they dressed
for the occasion – the sea holiday. The holiday at
the beach was the past of the poet’s mother and
the way she laughed remembering the day was the
past of the poet. The phrase laboured ease of
loss suggests the suffering and pain of losing
someone you love. The memories of the past that
used to please may change in pain with time.

Critical Analysis and Poetic Devices:

Alliteration is used in this stanza l. Words wry, with,

she, and see scattered through the lines –

In the second line of the above stanza, ‘see

Betty’ produces a lyrical effect which continues in
the next line ‘she’d say, ‘and look how they’. And it
rhymes with the next line ending with the word
holiday.

3rd Stanza
Now she’s has been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all,
Its silence silences.

Explanation: In the first line, the poet informs her

readers that her mother has been dead for about
12-13 years (mark the comparison – dead nearly
as many years as that girl lived [the big girl in the
photo]). And the poet concludes by saying nothing
about this circumstance that becomes silent with
time. These four lines end the poem with a tone of
sadness and suffering. The photograph that
reminded the poet’s mother of a happy day outing
at the beach with her cousins reminds the poet of
her mother’s death. Time changes things quickly or
eventually. But it does change things. Time is
inevitable and whatever it brings with itself is also
inevitable.

Critical Analysis and Poetic Devices: Lines 16-

19 are examples of prosaic lines in poetry. In
general, these lines are used to convey universal
truths or something that is wise, intellectual or cold

The last two lines remind readers of the inevitable

truth – nature has its own course and it keeps
following the same, come whatever! The silence of
the loss of the poet’s mother has silenced itself in
the abyss of the cosmos. And nothing can be said
or done about it

Summary:

A Photograph by Shirley Townson is a poem that

signifies the constant force of nature which is
always on work. Aided by time, nature has its
inevitable course to follow and we human beings
cannot do anything about it. We are born and we
die. We follow our daily lives and face happiness
and sadness on the way. No one can escape death.
The poet remembers how beautiful her mother
looked when she was young. She also remembers
her mother laughing and remembering the past.
Someone else’s joy rejoices us and may become
memories to remember later in life. Our deeds and
memories may keep people happy or sad for a
time being and then it fades in the course of time.
Humans are mortal. And what we enjoy in the
course of life, nature around us is immortal. The
sea that washed the transient feet of the poet’s
mother and her cousins symbolises the same. The
photograph may get lost, torn, or wasted in many
other ways. However, nothing can happen to the
ocean in eternity! A Photograph by Shirley Toulson
begins on a happy note and ends with a sad tone,
reminding us of the ultimate reality – death. ‘And
of this circumstance, there is nothing to say at all!’

Conclusion:
The poem concludes with the speaker saying that
there is “nothing to say at all” about the loss or the
period since. This suggests that she doesn’t quite
have the words to describe it or that there really are
no words to adequately convey the ravages of time.
[Link] Of The Rain

About the Poet

Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26,

1892) was an American poet, essayist, and
journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the
transition between transcendentalism and
realism, incorporating both views in his
works. Whitman is among the most
influential poets in the American canon, often
called the father of free verse, though he did
not invent it

1st Stanza
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here
translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,

Explanation: The poem begins with the poet

asking for the identity of the soft-falling rain
shower. Much to the surprise of the poet, the rain
replies to his question which the poet translates for
his readers. The rain in its own voice tells the poet
that she is the poem of this Earth. The rain is trying
to say that, as music or poetry gives pleasure to
human beings, the rain gives happiness to mother
Earth.
Critical Analysis and Poetic Devices

Metaphor (implied comparison)- “I am the Poem of

Earth”

Imagery (mental pictures)- ‘soft falling shower’

2nd Stanza
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the
bottomless sea,
Upward, to heaven, whence, vaguely form’d,
altogether changed, and
yet the same

Explanation: The poet says that the rain is an

eternal process, but it takes different forms at
different times. It rises from the land and the deep
sea in the form of intangible water vapour and
goes up to the sky. There it takes an indistinct
shape in the form of clouds.

Although it changes in its form or shape, its core

matter remains the same. Since vapour and clouds
contain water, they can get transformed into the
other. The words ‘impalpable’ and ‘eternal’
indicate that nature is not fully understood and
some part of it always remains beyond our reach.

Critical Analysis and Poetic Devices:

Hyperbole (exaggeration for effect)- ‘bottomless

sea

Personification: voice of the rain

3rd Stanza
I – descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-
layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only,
latent, unborn

Explanation: The raindrops pour down from

above to wash away droughts and dust layers
enveloping Earth. It satisfies the thirst of the dry
Earth and heals everything that is degrading and is
lying lifeless. The showers remove the dust
particles and make Earth clean and green.
The rain also helps in the germination of seeds
which were lying dormant due to a dry spell.

4th Stanza
“And forever, by day and night, I give back life to
my own origin, and make pure and beautify it;
(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after
fulfilment, wandering Reck’d or unreck’d, duly with
love returns.)

Explanation: The rain is involved in a continued

process of giving life on Earth by providing water
to dormant seeds and making the Earth more
beautiful and fuller of greenery. Rain helps in
enhancing the beauty of Earth as, in the absence
of water, everything turns dull or lifeless and dust
accumulates everywhere.

The last two lines are the poet’s own words and his
reflections upon the answers given by the rain. The
poet observes that the life of rain is similar to that
of a song. A song or poem is creativity at its best. It
has the power to calm, heal, rejuvenate, transform
and thrill. In the same way, repeated evaporation
and condensation purifies the rain. The entire
environment gets drenched in the rain, dust
particles settle down and there is greenery
everywhere which makes the whole Earth beautiful
to look at. The poet therefore draws a parallel
between rain and music as both have rhythm and
ability to thrill. Both of them rejuvenate and
beautify life.

Critical Analysis and Poetic Devices:

Oxymoron (contradictory terms joined together

for an effect) - day and night, reck’d and unreck’d.

Paradox (a statement that is seemingly

contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet
is perhaps true)- “I give back life to my own origin”

Parallelism (connection and similarity)- between

rain and song of a poet (last two lines)

Summary:

The poet is in an imaginary conversation with the

rain which he calls ‘the soft-falling shower’. He
asks the rain, “And who art thou?” to which, he
says, strangely, the rain replies. The poet
translates for the readers to understand what the
rain answered. The rain tells the poet in her ‘voice’
that she is the Poem of Earth. In a way, the sound
of raindrops falling on the ground is ‘voice of rain’
according to the poet which is musical. The rain
further tells the poet that it keeps rising forever in
the form of vapours which are ‘impalpable’ ‘out of
the land and the bottomless sea’ to the ‘heaven’.
There, the vapours form clouds. Their form is
changed yet their basic structure remains the
same. The rain says that if it would not have done
so, the trees would have been just the seeds
unborn and undeveloped. It keeps giving life to its
own origin i.e. it cleanses and nourishes the earth
to make it pure and beautiful. In the final lines, the
poet draws a parallel between rain and music as
both has the ability to soothe. Both of them
rejuvenate and heal life. Hence the poet, in the
poem, tries to show the significance of his poetry.
As rain is to the earth, poetry is to mankind.

Conclusion:
The rain tells the tales of various life forms and
provides them the liveliness to live on. Be it a
latent seed or the scorched land everyone is able
to survive and live on all dutiful rain who,
irrespective of getting itself loved, cherish others.

Bibliography
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