The Living Photograph 43j53

The Living Photograph By Jackie Kay

Biography of the Author Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white couple at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English. The experience of being adopted by and growing up within a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). The poems deal with an adopted child's search for a cultural identity and are told through three different voices: an adoptive mother, a birth mother and a daughter. The collection won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award and a commendation by the Forward Poetry Prize judges in 1992.

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 hands hold 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 the she is still, In the photo with me at three, The crinkled smile is living, breathing

The Meaning 1st Stanza Lines

1-4 show the physical description of the grandmother The

persona said that grother had a kind and warm smile The

grandmother did not have long in this life as she knew she was going to away

2nd Stanza The

grandmother became old and weak

The

tall grandmother became hunched

She

became senile

at

some point, the grandmother died and away to the next world

3rd Stanza The

persona was looking at a picture of her and the grandmother

The

grandmother was smiling and looked alive in the picture

Senile

- having or showing the weaknesses or diseases of old age, especially a loss of mental faculties.

THEME 

The memory of our loved ones



Family relationship



Love between a grandchildren and her/his grandmother

Point Of View 

The poem was written in first person point of view

Mood and Tone 

The tone are nostalgic and melancholic



The mood are sentimental as the persona was reminiscing the late grandmother

Literary Devices 

Personification : old smile round her eyes



Symbol: somewhere unknown, unthinkable



Metaphor: she went to the awful place grandmothers go

Moral Values 

We need to have good relationship with our elderly



We need to cherish our memory with our loved ones

Questions 1.

Who is the persona in the poem

2.

What does the persona means when she said “white hand in black hand”?

3.

“her sharp blue eyes look her own death in the eyes” what does this line imply?

4.

what does the persona means by “somewhere unknown, unthinkable”

5.

Why do you think the persona saw his/her grandmother was alive in the photograph?

6.

What do you do to show your appreciation to your elder?