PERSONA

The persona is the poet herself. Of mixed parentage, she had been adopted by a
white Scottish couple, thus the reference to black hand.

SETTING

The setting is her grandmothers or parents house, where the photograph is kept.

TONE AND MOOD

The poem is reflective and thoughtful, sometimes bitter, reminiscing about her
childhood and her relationship with her grandmother. She misses her and keeps
her memory alive by looking at the photo.

POINT

The poem is written in the first person.

STRUCTURE

The poem has no organised rhyme scheme. It has 3 stanzas, all of varying length,
each becoming shorter as if in line with the shrinking size of the grandmother. It
uses free verse.

STANZA ONE
- This is the longest with 7 lines, echoing her tall stature
STANZA TWO
- This becomes shorter, as she become shorter and hunched.
STANZA THREE
- Consists of 3 lines, echoing the poets age (three) in the photo. In sharp contrasts
with the length of the first two, it emphasises the importance she places on her
relationship with her grandmother.
LANGUAGE
The language of the poem is simple and easy to understand.

MORAL VALUES
-Appreciate family relationships
-Love your adopted children as your own without discriminating against colour and creed.
-Respect the old even when they are gone.
POETIC DEVICES
The power of the poem comes from the careful use of imagery.
IMAGERY Colour images predominate in stanza 1 grey bun, white broderie anglaise shirt,
white hand in black hand and blue eyes to highlight colour differences between the poet
and her grandmother.
-- Images of shape and form stress the stature of the grandmother as she grows
older and more hunched tall, small, round, hunched and straight-back.
METAPHOR My small grandmother is tall there she is short but looks tall as she is not
hunched.
-- the crinkled smile is still living, breathing the photo looks very lifelike.

THE LIVING PHOTOGRAPH

Jackie Kay
My small grandmother is tall there,
straight-back, white broderie anglaise shirt, Vocabulary Booster
1.Decoration with sewing on fine
pleated skirt, flat shoes, grey bun ,
white cloth
a kind, old smile round her eyes.
2.Having a narrow fold in a piece of
Her big hand holds mine,
cloth together
white hand in black hand.
Her sharp blue eyes look her own death in the 3.Long
eye. hair that has been brought

into a round shape and is worn at

the back of the head
It was true after all; that look.
4.To sit or stand with ones back and
My tall grandmother became small.
shoulders curved forwards
Her back round and hunched .
5.Not known or identified or familiar
Her soup forgot to boil.
She went to the awful place grandmothers go. 6.Impossible to image
7.Covered with a lot of thin lines
Somewhere uknown , unthinkable .
and folds

But there she is still,

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