Cold Knap Lake
by Gillian Clarke
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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
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Cold Knap
Lake is a manmade lake in a
town in Wales
We once watched a crowd
pull a drowned child from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk
she lay for dead.
The poem is a
vivid memory
from the poet’s
childhood
Then kneeling on the earth,
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
The poet recalls my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
The crowd stood silent,
seeing a child
drawn by the dread of it.
Her mother gives the child
drowning and
the kiss of life and she
thought she was The child breathed, bleating
comes round again
dead
and rosy in my mother's hands.
My father took her home to a poor house
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning.
When the child
Finally, the poet
is taken home Was I there?
questions the veracity of
the child is
Or is that troubled surface something else
her memory. Was she
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows really there to see the
beaten
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
beating?
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
Clarke describes
poem
asbeat
being
“aswhistle
true ason
I and
asthis
their
wings
and
the air? Cold Knap Lake: given the
my memory can make it” emphasising the ‘cloudy’
subject of the poem what
All lost things lie under closing water
nature of memory
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter. are the implications of the
word ‘Cold’
Grabs the
reader’s
attention with
the serious,
hopeless
situation
We once watched a crowd
‘for’ meaning as if
pull a drowned child from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk dead gives the
reader some hope
she lay for dead.
Then kneeling on the earth,
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
Metaphor
The crowd stood silent,
creates a strong
drawn by the dread of it.
visual image of
what the poet
The child breathed, bleating
remembers.
and rosy in my mother's hands.
My father took her home to a poor house
What is the ‘long
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning.
green silk’?
Was I there?
The beautiful
image contrasts Or is that troubled surface something else
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
with the horror of
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
the reality
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
All lost things lie under closing water
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter.
In this first stanza
the reader is made
to share the
perceptions of the
people at the time
of the incident
‘blue-lipped’ is in
direct contrast to the
mother’s ‘red head’
What are the
connotations of red?
Where in the poem is
this image referred to
again?
Clarke gives
a vivid
description of
her mother as
this is the
event she
remembers
the best.
It also
stresses the
importance of
her mother
both to her
and to the girl
she saved.
‘breath’ refers
to life and
mirrors the
creation of
Adam in the
Bible.
We once watched a crowd
May suggest
pull a drowned child from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk connection to
she lay for dead.
nature or the
natural action of a
Then kneeling on the earth,
mother bringing life
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
The crowd stood silent,
The poet’s view of her mother and
drawn by the dread of it.
possibly the suggests the view of
the crowd
The child breathed, bleating
and rosy in my mother's hands.
My father took her home to a poor house
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning. We are invited to
picture her
Was I there?
‘wartime’ frock
Or is that troubled surface something else
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
As if in prayer?
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
All lost things lie under closing water
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter.
Why are they
silent? What
might this
suggest?
In what sense
is this meant?
Why has the
child been
‘thrashed’?
What is the
effect of the
word
‘thrashed’?
We once watched a crowd
pull a drowned child from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk
she lay for dead.
Alliteration stresses the way
people are often drawn to
Then kneeling on the earth,
watching tragic events
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
The crowd stood silent,
The third stanza
drawn by the dread of it.
starts positively
with the
The child breathed, bleating
resuscitation of the
and rosy in my mother's hands.
child.
My father took her home to a poor house
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning. What effect does
Was I there?
Or is that troubled surface something else
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
All lost things lie under closing water
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter.
the word ‘bleating’
have?
‘rosy’ as life returns
to her cheeks.
Have you ever
heard the term
‘everything’s rosy’?
We once watched a crowd
The poet
"When
you recapture
a memory
pull
a drowned
child from
the lake.from early childhood,
questions her
you're sometimes
not sure
if you were
Blue-lipped
and dressed
in water's
longreally
greenthere,
silk if
own memories. she
someone
you about it, or if you read it in a story. I'd
lay for told
dead.
read fairy stories and legends about people drowning in
The short line
Then
kneeling
on the
earth,a famous painting of a drowned
mysterious
lakes.
I'd seen
allows the
agirl
heroine,
head.."bowed,
floatingher
in red
a brook
How is Clarke’s view of memory
reader time to
her
wartime
cotton
frock soaked,
reflected
in the
penultimate
stanza?
dwell on the
my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
question.
The crowd stood silent,
drawn by the dread of it.
What are the two meanings of
‘troubled surface’?
The child breathed, bleating
and rosy in my mother's hands.
Pleasant images
My father took her home to a poor house
contrasts with the
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning. mud and
cloudiness.
Alliteration and Was I there?
assonance
Or is that troubled surface something else
Why?
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
stress the
The poem uses halfwhere satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
threatening
rhyme until the final
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
nature of the
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
rhyming couplet.
swans
This gives the poem
All lost things lie under closing water
a ‘fairytale’ feel at the
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter.
end
We once watched a crowd
pull a drowned child from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk
she lay for dead.
One long,
flowing
sentence in
which the
meaning is
unclear.
Could this lend
a dream-like
quality to the
poem and
suggest the
unreliable
nature of
memory?
Then kneeling on the earth,
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
The crowd stood silent,
drawn by the dread of it.
Personified trees
maintain this notion of
the fairytale.
The child breathed, bleating
and rosy in my mother's hands.
Could this also
My father took her home to a poor house
suggest reaching back
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning. through memories into
the past?
Was I there?
Or is that troubled surface something else
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
All lost things lie under closing water
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter.
We once watched a crowd
pull a drowned child from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water's long green silk
she lay for dead.
What are the
‘lost things’?
Memories?
Child-hood?
Then kneeling on the earth,
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
my mother gave a stranger's child her breath.
The crowd stood silent,
drawn by the dread of it.
Why is the water
closing?
The child breathed, bleating
and rosy in my mother's hands.
What is suggested
My father took her home to a poor house
by this?
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning.
In what sense
is the daughter
still there?
Was I there?
Or is that troubled surface something else
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
All lost things lie under closing water
H
in that lake with the poor man's
daughter.
Summary
• This poem seems to be about the nature of
memory, especially of child-hood memories.
• The speaker's recollection of the event is
apparently quite clear at the start of the poem yet it gradually becomes clear that she is not
really sure whether all of it really happened, and
the description gradually comes to seem more
and more suggestive of a fairy tale or dream.
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Comparisons
• Heaney: Storm on the Island
• Both poems explore the more dangerous aspects of water
• Clarke focusing on its power to suck us in and drown us, Heaney on
its potential for violent destructiveness during a storm.
• Clarke's poem uses the lake to symbolise the shifting quality of
memory, while Heaney's poem is more purely descriptive.
•Patroling Barnegat: Whitman
•Again, both poems deal with the threatening aspects of water; both
from the writer's personal experience.
•And both poems contain a hint of the supernatural - Clarke using fairy
story references, Whitman using more religious imagery (savage trinity,
demoniac laughter to describe his storm.
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Comparisons
•Sonnet: Clare
•Both poems contain descriptions of water, but for Clare the water is beautiful
and clear with none of the threat or murkiness of Clarke's lake.
•Is this difference reflected in the differing structures of the poems - the regular
form and rhyme scheme of Sonnet expressing Clare's clarity and simplicity,
while Clarke's uncertainty comes through in the half-rhymes and loose stanza
structure of her poem?
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Review
1. How does Gillian Clarke present memory in this
poem?
2. What do you think of the motif (thematic image)
of water in Cold Knap Lake?
3. How does the poet use images of things that
were literally present and metaphors (there are
very few) in this poem?
4. In your own words, explain what you think the
poet is saying in the last six-line stanza and the
rhyming couplet that follows it.
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