2. Content and Theme
The persona looks through old photographs to find his
two grandmothers, Doris and Annabella, and recalls his
memories of them.
The poem explores the passage of time, memories, old-age
and identity, using photographs to trigger and reflect on
the past.
3. Features to analyse
Structure
• There are a different amount of lines in each stanza,
creating an odd look about the poem. The strange
appearance of the poem could suggest how distorted
a photograph is compared to the true memory and
person.
Rhyme Scheme
• In the poem there is an irregular rhyme scheme, like
memories and how time constantly changes things
to make them uneven. This is like the portrayal of
memories, that people forget things and the memory
is not the same throughout time.
4. The women’s appearances (Stanza One)
• Annabella
‘slim’ ‘vulnerable’ ‘pretty’
• Doris
‘portly’ ‘formidable’ ‘handsome’
• The difference of the two women is stated straight away, using their appearance to reflect
their personality. Annabella is attractive, innocent and feminine, unlike Doris who is nice,
pleasant but ‘handsome’.
• When describing how they’re dressed, Annabella’s is described in the first stanza, unlike Doris
who’s description is in the second stanza. This break is used to show there is a big separation
to the women’s likenesses, they are nothing like each other.
• Annabella
‘ a demure black frock with an amber brooch’
• Doris
‘a lacy black gown with a string of pearls’
• Annabella is subtle and elegant through her clothes, suggesting she’s reserved, modest and
almost shy, compared to Doris who wears lace, a seductive material that’s bold and loud.
Annabella’s ‘frock’ to Doris’s ‘gown’ could mean that Annabella is younger and vibrant than
Doris who’s more mature and old.
5. Stanza Two
• The date and location of the photographs ‘marked Ystalyfera
1880, the other Bridgend 1890’, are both locations in Wales, like
where Abse was born. This could be the only similarity the
women have, their photograph location, maybe why this stanza
is the shortest, though neither women are labelled to one
location.
‘Both were to say, ‘Cheese’; one, defiant, said ‘Chalk!’
• The difference of the women is also shown through their speech.
The women are like chalk and cheese, complete opposites. One
woman is more eccentric and loud, mostly like Doris to shout
‘Chalk!’ Abse could be questioning the reader, to see if they
stereotype people to dress how they act, basing personality on
appearance.
6. Stanza Three
• Annabella
‘fasted – pious, passive, enjoyed small talk’
• Doris
‘feasted – pacy, pushy, would never pray. Ate Pork!’
• Alliteration is used for both women however Doris’s words are more loud, and
punchy than Annabella’s which are more delicate and polite. Doris appears rude,
fat and rebellious. Eating pork was shocking to Jewish families, forbidden by their
religion. Doris doesn’t conform to her family’s expectations, and Annabella ‘told
Doris she was damned’, suggesting she didn’t agree/approve.
‘I liked Doris, I liked Annabella, though Doris was bossy and Annabella daft. I do not
think they liked each other’
• The persona liked both women equally, despite how they didn’t like each other.
Their disagreements must have been obvious with clashing personalities for the
persona to state that they knew.
7. Stanza Four
• The persona recalls a dream with both women in, standing ‘back
to back, not for the commencement of a duel but to see who was
taller’. This suggests rivalry, a competition between the women,
constantly comparing each other, like standing back to back to
compare heights.
• The tone shifts from being light-hearted to depressing. The
sensory memory of ‘Eau de Cologne’, ‘buns of grey hair, of
withered rose’, all stereotypical views of old women. These
memories ‘seem illusory, fugitive, like my dream’. They are just
memories, no truth behind them except the photograph, only
surviving through the object. The photograph captured them in a
time, but time has passed.
• ‘Sieved through leaky curtains’ imply that memories go at any
time like sunbeams, and come back in small glances. Time covers
memories, and only some can seep through the ‘curtains’, details
lost and forgotten. Nostalgia is unpredictable and ambiguous.
8. Stanza Five
• The last stanza is cynical and philosophical, a depressing view of
death.
‘Two old ladies once uxoriously loved, what’s survived? ‘An amber
brooch, a string of pearls, two photographs’
• The women once loved are now forgotten, only physical items remain
to keep them alive and everything is stored in materialistic items, but
these only reflect their appearance not their personality, so do they
really survive?
• ‘My children’s grandchildren’ will not remember him, so he ‘never
lived’. The persona talks about time; dead people only exist in
memories of the people that knew them, and if people forget their
ancestors and don’t tell young people then they no longer exist.
9. Links to Larkin
Wild Oats
Larkin compares women, however compared to
Abse he prefers one and creates one to be better
than the other, a ‘bosomy English rose and her
friends in specs’. Abse ‘likes’ both his
grandmothers, though he is rude about one of
them ‘feasted’ ‘handsome’ ‘pushy’ like Larkin is
to the girl with ‘specs’. Both poets use
photographs to hold onto the memories of
others, ‘in my wallet are still two snaps’.
10. Links to Larkin
Love Songs in Age
Like Two Photographs, Larkin uses memory through
objects but in the form of music, the ‘covers pleased her’,
holding sentimental value to the persona. Larkin uses
music to link to moments and memories of ‘that much-
mentioned brilliance, love’ unlike Abse that can’t
remember any memories of the women in the photographs
except that dream he had of them. Both look at the
passage of time, and how the ‘certainty of time’ changes
things. ‘What survived?’ and ‘could not now’ are
pessimistic views on memories, that nothing can last
forever, and things will be changed and be forgotten.
11. Links to Larkin
An Arundel Tomb
Both poems look at memory through objects as well, though
Larkin’s poem is more about love. The couple lay ‘side by side’
unlike Abse’s women who stand ‘back to back’ showing the tomb
makes the couple to appear equal, unlike the women in two
photograph that are described to be loved equally but have rivalry
between them so the persona could really have a preference.
Larkin and Abse suggest that time distorts the past, for the tomb
‘time has transfigured them into untruth’ likewise how a
photograph is only based on appearance, and their personality is
assumed on their appearance, hence Abse’s use of ‘one’ during
‘chalk and cheese’. The past is based on an interpretation of the
objects that remain.
