Catrin
by Gillian Clarke
F/H
Gillian Clarke
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Born in Cardiff, 1937
Speaks both English and Welsh
Has three children, a girl and two boys
Writes about nature/uses natural imagery
Usually writes in her own voice (i.e.
doesn’t invent characters for monologues
as seen in Song of the Old Mother)
• You can find more information at
www.gillianclarke.co.uk
F/H
The poem deals with the
often tense but loving
relationship between
mother and daughter
Although the overall
meaning is clear the
details of this poem
make it more complex
First stanza is in the
past tense; second is in
the present. This could
suggest the everpresent and continuing
nature of their love
Gentle rhythm of the
poem stresses the
spontaneous nature of the
poet’s
F/Hrecollections
I can remember you, child,
As I stood in a hot, white
Room at the window watching
The people and cars taking
Turn at the traffic lights.
I can remember you, our first
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares
With the wild, tender circles
Of our struggle to become
Separate. We want, we shouted,
To be two, to be ourselves.
It explores this idea
through two separate
confrontations: One is
the birth; the other is as
a teenager who wants to
play out after dark
Clarke says the poem
was written in answer to
the question, “Why did
my beautiful baby have
to become a teenager?”
Neither won nor lost the struggle
In the glass tank clouded with feelings
Which changed us both. Still I am fighting
You off, as you stand there
With your straight, strong, long
Brown hair and your rosy
Defiant glare, bringing up
From the heart's pool that old rope,
Tightening about my life,
Trailing love and conflict,
As you ask may you skate
In the dark, for one more hour.
Two stanzas deal with
their relationship at birth
and in teenage years
and the break makes the
reader wonder what has
happened in between
the incidents
After the title the child’s name is not mentioned again. Perhaps because of the universal
theme of the poem or possibly because it is so personal that names are unnecessary
The first section deals
with the mother before
and during labour
Personal side of
the poem is
emphasised by the
use of the second
person
I can remember you, child,
Simple language used
As I stood in a hot, white
throughout
Room at the window watching
emphasises the
The people and cars taking
simple, yet intense,
Turn at the traffic lights.
nature of the emotions
I can remember you, our first
being discussed
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Unnamed child
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
possibly hinting at
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares the universality of the
theme
With the wild, tender circles
Of our struggle to become
Separate. We want, we shouted,
To be two, to be ourselves.
‘first…confrontation’ what does this suggest about the poet’s relationship with Catrin?
F/H
The images of the
hospital as sterile,
‘blank’ and devoid of
feeling contrasts with
the personal nature of
the event.
The clinical images
also contrast with the
more natural and
flowing images of
Catrin used in the
second stanza
She remembers the
experience as being
very clinical. Perhaps
she felt the hospital
stole some of the
personal joy of birth
from her.
I can remember you, child,
As I stood in a hot, white
Room at the window watching
The people and cars taking
Turn at the traffic lights.
I can remember you, our first
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares
With the wild, tender circles
Of our struggle to become
Separate. We want, we shouted,
To be two, to be ourselves.
Again the poet contrasts
the everyday lives of
those she sees with the
huge event she is
waiting for.
Could also suggest the
progress through
life/labour as the traffic
lights change
‘Red rope’ Given the context what is the rope and why is it red?
F/H
Red due to the blood but red is also the colour of passion and
love. What images does this contrast with?
Stresses the violent,
painful nature of
childbirth. Again Clarke
uses contrasts to
emphasise her point.
What contrast is used in
these lines?
Her screams of pain
could be the words
metaphorically filling the
room
I can remember you, child,
As I stood in a hot, white
Room at the window watching
The people and cars taking
Turn at the traffic lights.
Did Clarke actually write all
I can remember you, our first
over the walls?
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both What does this actually
mean?
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares Clearly this event was
the inspiration for a
With the wild, tender circles
poem. This one! Could
Of our struggle to become
this be the writing on
Separate. We want, we shouted,
the walls?
To be two, to be ourselves.
The writing’s on the wall is a popular cliché meaning things are inevitable. Could this
suggest
the inevitability that babies eventually become troublesome teens?
F/H
‘tender circles’ could
mean the contractions of
child birth. Again Clarke
contrasts her choice of
language with the reality
of the event
The desire to be
‘separate…two…
ourselves’ is the same
struggle which takes
place later in the poem.
The teenager’s struggle
to be individual
F/H
‘We’ at this point the
mother and child have
become separate.
They have their own
wills which
foreshadows the
conflict that comes
later on.
I can remember you, child,
As I stood in a hot, white
Room at the window watching
The people and cars taking
Turn at the traffic lights.
I can remember you, our first
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares
With the wild, tender circles
Are these shouts of pain
Of our struggle to become
or of celebration?
Separate. We want, we shouted,
To be two, to be ourselves.
Alliteration stresses the
effort of childbirth.
The heavy breathing
involved
F/H
Enjambment also used
I can remember you, child,
here to physically enact
As I stood in a hot, white
the turning of the cars,
Room at the window watching
making the image more
The people and cars taking
vivid for the reader.
Turn at the traffic lights.
I can remember you, our first
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Enjambment stresses
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
the separation by
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares physically splitting the
words on the page.
With the wild, tender circles
Of our struggle to become
The caesura following
Separate. We want, we shouted,
‘separate’ forces the
To be two, to be ourselves.
reader to pause and
consider the impending
birth
Assonance and rhyme used to stress the strength
of Catrin at this age. Pick out the sounds that
have assonance and those that rhyme.
The hospital. What is
Neither won nor lost the struggle
the effect of the
In the glass tank clouded with feelings
Which changed us both. Still I am fighting image of
They’re both
‘clouded…feelings’?
You off, as you stand there
winners but both
With your straight, strong, long
have been altered
Brown hair and your rosy
The struggle of child birth
by the struggle.
Defiant glare, bringing up
is the beginning of many
From the heart's pool that old rope, struggles and battles
Clarke is a mother
Tightening about my life,
now whilst Catrin,
throughout
although separate is Trailing love and conflict,
parent/childhood
As
you
ask
may
you
skate
still dependent
In the dark, for one more hour.
‘stand’ stresses the independence of Catrin now that she is grown up
F/H
The pool suggests the natural depth of parental love and
is one of a number of natural images in this stanza which
contrast with the clinical imagery of the first
Emphasising the
constant pressures
of being a parent.
The constant care
and conflict as a
child grows up.
Neither won nor lost the struggle
In the glass tank clouded with feelings
Which changed us both. Still I am fighting
You off, as you stand there
With your straight, strong, long
Brown hair and your rosy
Defiant glare, bringing up
From the heart's pool that old rope,
Tightening about my life,
Trailing love and conflict,
As you ask may you skate
In the dark, for one more hour.
What is this an image
of? Now metaphorical
rather than literal.
This could also be
seen as a
metaphorical tugof-war or even the
parent’s battle to let
their child grow-up.
Clarke says, “The invisible umbilical cord that ties parents and children
even when children grow up. I was also thinking of the image of a boat
tied to a harbour wall. The rope is hidden. The boat looks as if it's free,
but
F/H it isn't.”
What could these words suggest?
A desire to stay in the womb perhaps?
Could it suggest the fact that both parent and child are still ‘in the dark’
about each other?
Neither won nor lost the struggle
In the glass tank clouded with feelings
Which changed us both. Still I am fighting
You off, as you stand there
Clarke choose skating after
‘dark’ links to fears With your straight, strong, long
dark because it is an activity
and could suggest Brown hair and your rosy
that shows that is “beautiful
both the very natural Defiant glare, bringing up
fears of the parents From the heart's pool that old rope, and dangerous to be young”.
Perhaps highlighting the
and the fearless
Tightening about my life,
tensions of parenthood,
nature of children
Trailing love and conflict,
wanting your child to be both
As you ask may you skate
happy and safe.
In the dark, for one more hour.
Clarke says, “I'm grateful to you for reading [my poems] and for revealing to me
what you find. Poets write instinctively, and don't always see every possible
meaning in the words they choose. If you find something, and prove it with
quotations, then it's there, and you're right, and don't believe anyone who tells
F/H
you otherwise.
The poem is focused
on the tense
relationship between
the parent and child.
How do you think this
poem should be read?
Frustrated?
Angry?
Tenderly?
Wistfully?
F/H
I can remember you, child,
As I stood in a hot, white
Room at the window watching
The people and cars taking
Turn at the traffic lights.
I can remember you, our first
Fierce confrontation, the tight
Red rope of love which we both
Fought over. It was square
Environmental blank, disinfected
Of paintings or toys. I wrote
All over the walls with my
Words, coloured the clean squares
With the wild, tender circles
Of our struggle to become
Separate. We want, we shouted,
To be two, to be ourselves.
Is this a poem of conflict or
love?
If it’s conflict, who wins?
Neither won nor lost the struggle
In the glass tank clouded with feelings
Which changed us both. Still I am fighting
You off, as you stand there
With your straight, strong, long
Brown hair and your rosy
Defiant glare, bringing up
From the heart's pool that old rope,
Tightening about my life,
Trailing love and conflict,
As you ask may you skate
In the dark, for one more hour.
Comparisons
Cold Knap Lake
•In both poems, life is magically brought forth ...yet Cold Knap Lake
describes a virtual rebirth when the drowned girl is revived, rather than an
actual birth.
•Both contain conflict, but in Cold Knap Lake it is between the rescued girl
and her parents, rather than between Clarke and her mother.
•Clarke portrays her mother as a heroine in Cold Knap Lake. We are not told
Catrin’s feelings for her mother when she forbids her to go skating, but she
is unlikely to see her in such glowing terms!
The Song of the Old Mother
•Both poems deal with the conflict between generations, but in Yeats’ poem
there is no love.
•(Do you think that the struggles that Catrin and Clarke have experienced
together actually increased their love?).
•Both are written from the mother’s point of view.
•Catrin has a looser structure, while The Song is tightly structured. What
F/H this suggest?
could
Comparisons
The Affliction of Margaret
• Both poems are from the mother’s point of view and show that motherhood
can be painful.
• Yet while Margaret laments because she does not know what has happened
to her beloved Son; Clarke suffers because of the tension between her and
Catrin.
• Both compare the child they knew (Margaret’s the Young One) with the
grown child; both show their pride in their offspring. Margaret’s son was
among the prime in worth, Catrin has a rosy, Defiant glare.
• There is a sense of mystery in Wordsworth’s poem, as no one knows the
fate of the son; we pity Margaret. We sense the warmth in Clarke’s
relationship with Catrin, however.
F/H
Comparisons
• Digging
• Both poems are intensely personal
• Both poems deal with the bonds between the
generations - in Clarke's poem a mother addresses her
child, while in Heaney's a son talks about his father and
grandfather.
Much of Heaney’s poetry is about parent/child relationships and growing
up.
Choose one poem we have studied and list the similarities and
differences between it and Catrin.
F/H
Review
• As you read the poem, do you identify with the
mother or the daughter or do you see things
from both viewpoints?
• How far do you think this poem depicts the
relationship of parents and children like it is? Is it
different for fathers and sons?
• Should the mother have let her daughter go
skating in the dark? Are parents too protective?
Would you (will you) allow your children to take
more risks?
F/H