A Photograph
I. Read the extract given below and answer :
“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.”
1. What does the cardboard here refer to?
(a) A thick paper on which the poet’s photograph was pasted
(b) A thick envelope
(c) A thick paper on which the poet’s mother’s photograph was pasted
(d) A paper boat
2. What does the cardboard depict?
(a) It depicts a scenery
(b) It depicts the picture of a house
(c) It depicts the picture of a school
(d) It depicts the picture of three girls
3. Who is the ‘big girl’ mentioned here?
(a) The big girl is the poet herself
(b) The big girl is the poet’s mother
(c) The big girl is the poet’s relative
(d) The big girl is the poet’s friend
II. “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.”
1. What does the poet mean by ‘smile through their hair’?
(a) It means that a smile was painted on the hair of the photographed girls
(b) It means that the photographed girls were wearing a mask
(c) It means that the hair of the photographed girls were covering their
face when they were smiling
(d) It means that the hair of the girls in the photograph was smiling too
2. What has not changed over a period of time?
(a) The photo
(b) The cardboard
(c) The girls
(d) The sea
3. Find a word from the extract which means “lasting only for a short
time”?
(a) Still
(b) Transient
(c) Changed
(d) Less
III.“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.”
1.Why did ‘she’ laugh?
(a) Because of the funny dresses that they were wearing at the sea holiday
(b) Because one of them cracked a joke
(c) Because of the funny dresses they were wearing at the party
(d) Because of the funny man they saw at the sea holiday
2.Who are Betty and Dolly?
(a) They are poet’s cousins
(b) They are poet’s friends
(c) They are poet’s mother’s friends
(d) They are poet’s mother’s cousins
3.…………. in the extract is the synonym of ‘photograph’.
(a) Snapshot
(b) Picture
(c) Mine
(d) Laboured
IV. “Now she’s been dead nearly as many years As that girl lived.
And of this circumstance There
is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.”
1.Who does ‘she’ refer to?
(a) The poet’s dead aunt
(b) The poet’s dead mother
(c) The poet’s dead cousin
(d) The poet’s sister
2.Why is there nothing to say about the death of the poet’s mother?
(a) Because the poet is confused
(b) Because the poet was not in her senses when her mother expired
(c) Because the death of the poet’s mother has left a deep void in the
poet’s heart
(d) Because the poet did not have a good relationship with her mother
3.Which word in the extract means the same as “events that change your
life, over which you have no control”?
(a) Silences
(b) Circumstances
(c) Situation
(d) Circumstance
Short Answers :
1. What does the poet see in the photograph ?
The poet sees the sweet face of her mother in the photograph. It was a sea-
holiday when the photograph was taken. The poet's mother and her two girl cousins,
Betty and Dolly. They all smiled at their uncle to have a photograph.
2. What does "transient feet" mean ?
The words "Transient feet" mean the temporarily existing feet of the poet's
mother and two cousins girls. The sea water washed away their foot prints. It indicates
the transitoriness of earthly things.
3. How does the poet react to her mother's death ?
The poet's mind was filled with the over grief at her mother's death. She
became speechless. The memory of her mother's death made her silence deeper and
deeper.
4.What is that silences the poet ?
The intensity of grief over her mother's death renders the poet speechless. The
emptiness that she feels creates a pervading silence around her.
5.What does the word 'cardboard' denote in the poem ? Why has this word been
used ?
OR
What is the implication of the word 'cardboard' in the poem 'A Photograph' ?
The word 'cardboard' denotes the damaged photograph of the poet's mother
which was clicked when the poet's mother was only twelve years old. The word
'cardboard' has been used to denote that the photograph is now an old picture with the
memory of the poet's dead mother.
