POEM : THE LIVING PHOTOGRAPH

BY : JACKIE KAY

My small grandmother is tall there,straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt,pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun,a kind, old smile round her eyes.Her big hand holds mine,white hand in black hand.Her sharp blue eyes look her own death in the eye.

It was true after all that look.My tall grandmother became small.Her back round and hunched.Her soup forgot to boil.She went to the awful place grandmothers go.Somewhere unknown, unthinkable.

But there she is still,in the photo with me at three,the crinkled smile is still living, breathing.

Background

Poet name : Jackie KayBorn : Edinburg, Scotland in 1961Notable works : The Adoption PapersAwards : 1) Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award (1991) 2) Somerset Maugham Award (1994) 3) Guardian First Book Award Fiction PrizeOccupation : A professor of creative writing at Newcastle University.

Setting• Time : The poem was written

when the persona has grown up.• Place : At the family home.

Persona 1. The persona is the poet herself.2. She is looking at an old photograph

and is swept away by memories of her late grandmother.

Tone & Mood • Tone–Descriptive– Sad–Reminiscing

• Mood– Sad–Reflective

Themes1. Memorise are to be treasured– Looking at old photograph brings back many

treasured memories especially those of family members.

2. Death is a part of life– Death is an inevitable part of life. Ageing process

affected the grandmother until she eventually passes away.

Moral Values1. We must treasure our loved ones while they

are alive.2. We must try to accept that death is a part of

life.3. We must value the importance of family

relationships.

Literary Devices1. Imagery• Imagery is the used of words that

enable the reader to visualise a person or a scene.• In the first stanza, the poet describes

her grandmother in the photograph so vividly that the reader is able to imagine what she looks like.

My small grandmother is tall there,Straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt,Pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun,A kind, old smile around her eyes.

Literary Devices

2. Contrast• Contrast refer to the differences

between two things.• In the first stanza, the poet describes

her grandmother when she is strong and healthy. In contrast, the second stanza shows her getting older and weaker, and eventually passing away.

Contrast

First stanza Second stanzaMy small grandmother is tall there, Straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt,Pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun,A kind, old smile around her eyes.

My tall grandmother become small.Her back round and hunched.Her soup forgot to boil.She went to the awful place grandmothers go.

Literary Devices

3. Personaficationi. Her soup forgot to boil

Meaning : grandmother has become forgetful.

ii. The crinkled smile is still living, breathing Meaning : grandmother’s smile looks so alive in the photograph.

Literary Devices

4. Symbolism• Symbolism means the use of objects,

plants, or animals to represent something else.

• The photograph represent the memories the persona has of her late grandmother.

Literary Devices

5. Irony• Irony refers to the use of words to mean

something very different from what they appear to be.

• The irony is in the title itself. The Living Photograph, which seems to suggest that the grandmother is still alive, in reality she is actually dead.

Literary Devices

6. Foreshadowing• Foreshadowing means a warning or

indication of a future event.• Last line in the first stanza ‘her sharp blue

eyes look her own death in the eye’ foreshadows what is to happen next. This prove to be true because in the next stanza, the grandmother dies.

Summary

The poem consists of ____________ lines. There are _______ lines in stanza ____, _______ lines in stanza ____ and _____ lines in stanza _____. It is written in ____________ verse where there is no rhyme scheme. The poet delivers the poem in narrative style using the ____________ person point of view. The poem is most likely based on the poet’s own ___________________. Thus the ________________ could be the poet herself. In the poem, the persona is looking at an old photograph of herself with her _______________________. It brought back memories of a specific time when her grandmother was alive and well. Although, her grandmother has since __________________________, when the persona looks at the photograph, she feels the presence of her grandmother as if she is still alive.

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Practice 11. ‘tall there’

2. ‘white hand in black hand’

3. ‘crinkled smile’

4. ‘still living’

5. ‘soup forgot to boil’

6. ‘photo’

7. ‘her sharp blue eyes look her own death in the eye’

8. ‘Straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt, pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun’

Symbol

Metaphor

Alliteration

Imagery

Contrast

Personafication

Assonance

diction

Practice 2Phrases

1. ‘tall there, straight back’

2. ‘grey bun’

3. ‘white hand in black hand’

4. ‘back round and hunched’

5. ‘look death in the eye’

6. ‘but there she is still’

Meaning

a) A white person e.g. an English man with a black person e.g. a Nigerian

b) But, contrary to what you think , she is still alive.

c) An old person with a bent back

d) A person with height and has a good posture

e) White greying hair tied back like a bun

f) To accept the fact that one is going to die

Practice 5

1. Skirt2. Shirt3. Big hand4. Black hand5. Small6. Round7. Awful8. Grey bun9. Flat shoes10. photo

Practice 31. Broderie anglaise shirt2. Kind, old smile3. Round and hunched back4. Unknown,unthinkable place5. Living, breathing smile6. Sharp, blue eyes7. Pleated skirt8. Grey bun9. Flat shoes10. Living photograph

Practice 4

1.Who wrote the poem?Jackie Kay.

2.To whom do you think the title of the poem relate to?The persona’s grandmother.

Practice 43. Describe the persona’s grandmother:

i. Dressing – what did she wear?A white broderie anglaise shirt and pleated skirt.

ii. Physical appearance – In verse 1, how did the persona describe her grandmother?

Tall and straight-back.iii. Facial expression – How did her grandmother look?

Kind, smiling and pleasant looking.iv. Eyes – what colour were her eyes?

Blue.v. What is the skin colour of the persona and grandmother?

Black and white.

Practice 44. What happened to her grandmother’s physical

appearance as she aged?She became small and short with her back round and hunched.

5. How does the persona describe the other world? How does this reflect the persona’s perception of life after death?

It is described as awful, unknown and unthinkable. I think she feels the other world is a terrible unknown place and she cannot understand the living condition there.

Practice 4

6. Answer the following questions about the photograph.

i. Who are in the photograph?The persona and her grandmother.

ii. How old was the persona when the photograph was taken?

Three years old.

SPM Practices

SPM Practices

a) In stanza 1, which words mean ‘open embroidery on white linen’?

Broderie anglaise.

b) Describe the grandmother’s skirt and shoes?

The skirt was pleated and the shoes were flat.

SPM Practices

c) Why do you think the grandmother forgot to boil the soup?

I think she was getting old and forgetful.d) Look her own death in the eye where do you think the persona was when the grandmother passed away? Provide a reason for your answer.

Where : By the grandmother’s side.Reason : The persona mentions ‘her big hands hold mine’.