A Photograph NCERT Solutions Class 11 PDF Download 2026

Ans: The word 'cardboard' denotes the stiff, thick paper base on which the old photograph was pasted. It has been used to indicate that the photograph is very old, worn out, and fragile, much like human life itself. It highlights the nostalgic and antique value of the memory captured in it.

Ans: The camera has captured a happy, fleeting moment from the past. It shows the poet's mother, who was about twelve years old at the time, standing in the shallow sea water. She is holding the hands of her two younger cousins, Betty and Dolly. They are all smiling through their sea-wind-blown hair, posing for their uncle who took the photograph.

Ans: The sea, which was washing their "terribly transient feet," has not changed over the years. Yes, this deeply contrasts the eternal, immortal nature of the physical environment with the temporary, fragile, and mortal nature of human life. Humans grow old and die, but the sea remains the same.

Ans: The mother's laugh indicated her deep nostalgia and fond memory of her childhood. Looking at the photograph twenty or thirty years later, she found it amusing to see how they were dressed for the beach by their parents. It was a laugh of joy tinged with a slight sense of loss for those carefree days that had passed.

Ans: The word 'wry' means disappointed or twisted. Both the mother and the poet have suffered a great loss. The mother lost her joyful childhood days (her sea holiday), and the poet lost her mother's physical presence and her beautiful laughter. Both try to bear their respective losses with 'laboured ease'—meaning they pretend to be okay and try to accept it easily, but internally, the coping process is full of painful labor and struggle.

Ans: "This circumstance" refers to the present state of the poet, which is defined by the death of her mother. The mother has been dead for nearly twelve years, and the poet is now left in a state of profound grief, loneliness, and absolute silence, unable to express the pain of this tragic reality.

Ans: Betty and Dolly were the two younger girl cousins of the poet's mother. In the photograph, they were holding the hands of the poet's mother (who was the eldest) and went paddling in the shallow sea water during a beach holiday.

Ans: The three girls were standing on the beach facing their uncle, who had a camera. The sea wind was blowing their hair across their smiling faces, creating a beautiful, natural, and joyful moment frozen in the photograph.

Ans: For the poet's mother, the "past" was the sea holiday depicted in the photograph, a time of innocent joy and carefree childhood which she remembered nostalgically.

Ans: For the poet, the "past" was her mother's beautiful laughter. Now that her mother is dead, the poet can no longer hear that laughter, making it a precious, lost memory.

Ans: The feet belong to humans, whose lives are extremely brief, fragile, and temporary ("transient"). The poet uses this phrase to contrast the short lifespan of humans with the eternal, unchanging nature of the sea washing those feet.

Ans: The poet mentions that the mother has been dead for "nearly as many years / As that girl lived." Since the girl in the photograph was twelve years old, it implies the mother has been dead for about twelve years.

Ans: The poem is divided into three distinct phases of time:
Phase 1: It depicts the mother's childhood. She is a twelve-year-old girl enjoying a sea holiday with her cousins Betty and Dolly. It is a time of innocence, joy, and physical vitality, captured in the cardboard photograph.
Phase 2: This represents the mother's middle age, some twenty or thirty years later. She looks at the photograph and laughs at how they were dressed. This phase highlights nostalgia and a sense of loss for her bygone youth.
Phase 3: The present phase, where the mother has been dead for twelve years. The poet is left alone, staring at the photograph, overwhelmed by the painful reality of death and the profound silence it brings.

Ans: Shirley Toulson beautifully contrasts the immortality of nature with the mortality of human life. She writes, "And the sea, which appears to have changed less, / Washed their terribly transient feet." The sea represents the permanent, eternal, and unchanging forces of nature. It has remained exactly the same over the decades. In stark contrast, human life ("transient feet") is temporary and subject to aging, decay, and death. The mother who was once a young girl grew old and eventually died, proving how fleeting human existence is compared to the vastness of the natural world.

Ans: The phrase "laboured ease" is an excellent example of an Oxymoron—a figure of speech in which two contradictory terms appear together. "Laboured" means something achieved with great difficulty and struggle, while "ease" means something done effortlessly or naturally. The poet uses this to describe the complex process of grieving. Both the mother (who lost her childhood) and the poet (who lost her mother) are trying to cope with their losses. Outwardly, they try to accept the loss easily and move on ("ease"), but inwardly, bearing the pain requires an immense, tiring emotional struggle ("laboured").

Ans: The final stanza expresses the ultimate finality of death. The poet says, "There is nothing to say at all. / Its silence silences." Twelve years have passed since her mother's death, but the void left behind is immense. The "circumstance" (death) is so tragic and absolute that it leaves the poet completely speechless. The silence of death has silenced her own thoughts and words. She cannot express her pain anymore; she has surrendered to the heavy, oppressive quietness that follows the loss of a parent. It highlights how profound grief eventually leads to a numb, wordless acceptance.

Ans: Old photographs are emotionally powerful because they act as time machines. In the poem, the cardboard piece freezes a single, joyful moment—the sea holiday—forever. Even after the mother has died, the photograph preserves her innocent 12-year-old smile. Photographs remind us of our mortality because the people in them age and pass away, but the image remains unchanged, evoking deep feelings of nostalgia, longing, and grief for times and people that can never return.

Ans: The poet expresses deep affection and a sense of wonder. She is looking at her mother's innocent, unburdened, and sweet face as a twelve-year-old girl, a time long before the poet was even born or the mother had taken on the responsibilities of adulthood.

Ans: The photograph was taken by the girls' uncle. He captured the moment on the beach while the three girls stood still, posing for the camera with the sea wind blowing through their hair.

Ans: Twenty or thirty years later, the mother would look at the snapshot and laugh. She would point out her cousins, Betty and Dolly, to the poet and amuse herself by recalling how their parents had dressed them peculiarly for the beach holiday.

Ans: The poetic device used here is Alliteration, due to the repetition of the consonant 't' sound. It is also a transferred epithet, transferring the temporary nature of human life to their "feet".