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 gradmother had a kind and

warm smile
The

grandmother did not have long in this life as

she knew she was going to pass away

2nd Stanza
The

grandmother became old and weak

The

tall grandmother became hunched

She

became senile

at

some point, the grandmother died and pass 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?