ASSIGNMENT: POEM 1 ìA PHOTOGRAPHî Read …

1. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow: 

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.

Q.  What does the cardboard refer to?

Ans. The cardboard refers to the childhood photograph of her mother.

Q. Who was the big girl and how old was she?

Ans. The big girl was the poet’s mother. She was then twelve years old.

Q. How did the cousins go paddling with mother?

Ans. The girl cousins went paddling with mother holding her hand.

2. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
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
Q.  Who does ‘all three’ refer to here?
Ans. ‘all three’ refers to the poet’s mother and her two cousins.
Q. Where are they now?
Ans. They have gone to the seashore. They are paddling in the water.
Q. Why did they smile through their hair?
Ans. They smiled through their hair because they were posing for a photograph.
3. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
……………………….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.
Q. Where was her mother?
Ans. Her mother was on the sea shore with her cousins and posing for a photograph.
Q. When did this incident take place?
Ans. This incident took place when she was twelve years old.
Q. How is the poet able to remember her mother’s childhood?
Ans. The poet is able to remember her mother’s childhood when she looks into the photograph of her mother.
Q. What has stood the onslaught of time and what has not?
Ans. The sea has stood the onslaught of time. It is still the same. However, her mother and her cousins underwent changes. Her mother grew up to be an adult and now she is no more.
4. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
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.”
Q. Who would laugh at the snapshot after twenty – thirty years later?
Ans. The poet’s mother would laugh at the snapshot after twenty – thirty years later.
Q. How did mother remember her past?
Ans. Mother remembered her past with nostalgia.
Q. Who were Betty and Dolly?
Ans. Betty and Dolly were her cousins who had gone with her to the beach for paddling.