A Photograph by Shirley Toulson - Solutions of CBSE Guess Questions for Class 11 NCERT Hornbill, Lesson 1 Poetry

a Photograph by Shirley Toulson

Class 11 Hornbill (NCERT English Core) - Lesson 1, Poetry

CBSE Guide and Guess Questions Answers

(CBSE Sample Questions - CBSE Hot)

Question.1: Whose photograph does the poet look at? When was the photograph taken? What does it show? (or, What has been captured in the photograph).

Answer: The poet looks at the photograph of her mother with her two girl cousins Dolly and Betty. It was taken when the mother was just a twelve years old girl and had gone to a beach to enjoy her sea holiday. The photo shows all the girls standing together and smiling at their uncle while he took the snap.

Question.2: Explain this line taken from the poem A Photograph, "The sea holiday was her past, mine is her laughter"?

Answer: Time and nature spares none. The photograph flashes back to the scene that was captured some thirty years ago. Gone is the carefree laughter of the sweet girl who was just about twelve years old at that time. The sea holiday was now a thing of past for the mother just to remember it fondly. For the poet the sweet laughter of her mother has also become a thing of past since her mother was no more in this world.

Question.3: Describe the poet's feelings when she looks at her mother's photograph.

Answer: The poetess Shirley Toulson reminisces over the photograph of her mother which taken when she was just a girl of twelve years or so. It revives sad nostalgic feelings in the poet for her mother who died years ago. The photograph flashes back to the scene that was captured some thirty years ago.

It shows the natural sweet smiles of the mother and her two girl cousins, all standing together. They were on a sea holiday, paddling in the sea. The sea seemed as if washing their feet when the photo was taken. The poet wonders at mother's reaction if she would look at the photograph after twenty-thirty years. At same time the poet is aware that this couldn't happen as mother was no more. In fact, her candid smile and laughter of her mother was a thing of past now. The poet becomes sad as she feels that unlike the nature which is immortal, the human life is ever changing, short-lived and mortal.

The poet knows that the situation captured and preserved in the cardboard frame of the photograph will never happen again. The poet misses her mother very much as there was a deep silence everywhere. At the end she accepts the present reality and silently resigns to her fate.

a photograph by Shirley Toulson - also study

Class 11, A Photograph byShirley Toulson - NCERT answers of Poetry Lesson 1 Hornbill