Literatus

 

Allusion: An allusion is a reference or an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication. An example of allusion in this poem is ‘cardboard’ which actually refers to the photograph.  Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the initial sound (generally a consonant) of several words marking the stressed syllable in a line of poem. Examples of alliteration in this poem are ‘stood still to smile’, ‘terribly transient’, ‘Its silence silences’ etc.  Transferred Epithet: An Epithet is an adjective. If it gets transferred from its literal place to a metaphoric place ‘Transient feet’ is an example of the transferred epithet in the poem. It refers to human feet but it is used to describe the lack of permanence of human life.  Oxymoron: In this literary device, there are two opposite ideas that are joined to create an effect. ‘Laboured ease’ in the poem is an example of an oxymoron. Laboured meaning with ‘great difficulty’ and ease means ‘comfortably’. B...

Lines 1-4:  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.  I n these lines, the poet describes looking through a photo album, the pages of which seem to be made of cardboard. The cardboard here refers to the thick stiff photo paper used in the pre-digital photography era to store memories. She is looking at one picture in particular. It is a picture of three girls, the tallest and eldest one in the middle and two younger and shorter ones on each side of her. The girl standing in the middle is the poet’s mother, and the poet speculates that her mother must have been around twelve years old when the picture was taken. The other two girls are two of her mother’s cousins. Each of the cousins is holding on to one of the elder girl’s hands for support. The picture was taken on a day when the three girls had gone paddling at the beach.  Lines ...

The title of the poem is much appropriate as it reminds the poet of her mother. A photograph is something that captures a certain moment of someone’s life. The person might change in course of time but the memories attached with the photograph are eternal. In this poem, the poet’s mother is no more but the photograph makes her memories come alive. The mother’s sweet face and her cousins have changed with time but the moment captured in the photograph still gives happiness to the poet’s mother when she views it thirty to forty years later. The poet reminisces that the sea holiday was the past of her mother and for her the laughter of her mother is past now. Both the moments of life have been permanently etched in the poet’s mind with the feeling of eternal loss. Death now has overpowered the innocence of these moments and the pleasure they treasured. The poet concludes the poem on a melancholy note with the comment that there is nothing to say or comment upon this sad event. The silence...