NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 1 A Photograph

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

A Photograph NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 1

A Photograph NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

A Photograph About the poet

Shirley Toulson was born on 20 May 1924, in Henley-on-Thames, England, as the daughter of Douglas Horsfall Dixon and Marjorie Brown. She had a huge passion for writing and was greatly influenced by her father who was a writer too. She secured a BA in Literature from Brockenhurst College in London in 1953. Shortly after, she took to writing as a career and also served as the editor for many magazines in the meantime.

A Photograph Main Theme

The poet sees the photograph of her mother at a seaside holiday along with her two cousins. The mother is only twelve years old in the photograph. Now she has been dead for twelve years.
The poetess is acutely conscious of her loss. She speaks of the shortness of human life against the permanence of the sea. The finality of death is stressed in the last stanza—particularly in the last two lines.

A Photograph Think it out

Question 1.
What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Answer:
A photograph; it recreates a happy past which is now as lifeless as the cardboard it is printed on.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 1 A Photograph

Question 2.
What has the camera captured?
Answer:
Two cousins on each side of a twelve-year-old girl holding hands, smiling. The three girls are on a seaside holiday.

Question 3.
‘What has not changed over the years?’ Does this suggest something to you?
Answer:
The sea shows the permanence of nature as compared to temporariness of human lives.

Question 4.
The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Answer:
Carefree happiness of a twelve-year-old girl on a holiday at seaside.

Question 5.
What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”?
Answer:
The sea holiday and her laughter have now become distorted due to ease acquired with great difficulty. The loss of mother is extremely painful to the poet. Over the years, with difficulty, she has come to terms with it; therefore, she uses the words ‘the laboured ease of loss.’ The joy of the mother’s sea holiday and her laughter in the photograph only bring her pain. Therefore, the expression used is ‘wry’.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 1 A Photograph

Question 6.
What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?
Answer:
The mother being dead.

Question 7.
The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Answer:

  • First stanza—mother’s childhood.
  • Second stanza— her passing away.
  • Third stanza— the poet’s sense of loss at her mother not being there
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