Catrin (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

‘Catrin’

Each poetry anthology in the GCSE contains 15 poems, and in the poetry question in the exam you will be given one poem on the paper – printed in full – and asked to compare this given poem to one other from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the other poems, so you will have to know them very well from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to learn. However, understanding four things about each poem will enable you to produce a top-mark response:

• The meaning of the poem and the story it tells 

• The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey

• How the poet uses poetic techniques to convey their ideas and messages

• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of other poems in the anthology

Below is a guide to Gillian Clarke’s 'Catrin', from the Conflict anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations

• Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods

• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes

• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

The poem has been taken from Pearson Edexcel’s poetry anthology, the full version of which can be found here.

Overview

In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is essential that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell

• An explanation of the poem, line-by-line

• A commentary of each of these lines, outlining Clarke's intention and message

'Catrin' in a nutshell

'Catrin' is an intensely personal poem depicting a mother’s relationship with her daughter. The speaker describes her daughter’s birth and explores their physical and emotional connection, as well as their struggle to become two separate people. The umbilical cord becomes a metaphor for their continued connection, but Clarke also addresses the conflicts between them. The poem celebrates Catrin’s individuality and the bond that still connects the mother with her daughter. 

'Catrin' breakdown

Lines 1–5

“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.”

Explanation

• The speaker remembers waiting to give birth to her daughter

• She is standing in a hospital room, which is overheated, with bare, white walls 

• The speaker looks out of the window at the street, where life is going on normal

Clarke's intention

• Clarke presents her speaker’s memory in the first person (“I”) and addresses her daughter directly, as “child”:

  • This introduces the personal tone of the poem

  • The “I” and “you” used throughout the poem reflect the nature of the mother-daughter relationship, which changes but also remains the same

  • The unnamed “child” who is being addressed is assumed to be the “Catrin” referred to in the title

• The “hot, white room” conveys a stifling atmosphere:

  • This illustrates the closeness, but also the discomfort, of the relationship Clarke portrays in the poem

• The speaker’s view from the window emphasises the contrast between her situation and the outside world :

  • She is about to do something life-changing and extraordinary (give birth), while outside people are continuing with their normal lives

  • This also signals the way in which her own life is about to change forever

Lines 6–9

“I can remember you, our first 

Fierce confrontation, the tight 

Red rope of love which we both 

Fought over.-” 

Explanation

• The theme of conflict is introduced with the description of the child’s birth as a “fierce confrontation”

• The “tight/Red rope of love” is a metaphor for the umbilical cord:

  • The theme of conflict continues as the speaker describes fighting over the umbilical cord with the baby

Clarke's intention

• The speaker repeats “I can remember you”, reinforcing the relationship between mother and daughter 

• The moment of birth, when the baby becomes a separate individual to the mother, is described by the speaker as a conflict – their “first/Fierce confrontation:

  • This description emphasises the physical separation between the speaker and her baby

  • It could also indicate the pain and struggle of childbirth

• The metaphor of the “tight/Red rope of love” indicates the connection between them: 

  • The fact that they “both/Fought over” the umbilical cord presents a dual image of connection and conflict

  • This ensures that the theme of conflict is interwoven with their connection from the very start

  • The metaphor of the rope indicates connection, but also restriction – a rope can tie someone up

  • The red colour of the rope, which contrasts sharply with the stark white of the room, may also indicate the blood of childbirth

Lines 9–17

“-It was a 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.”

Explanation

• The speaker returns to her previous description of the hospital room, noting how bare of decoration or objects it is

• In her imagination, the speaker writes and draws coloured circles on the walls

• The speaker and the baby both express their desire to become separate human beings:

  • The shouting could also refer to the cries of the mother and baby during childbirth

Clarke's intention

• The metaphor of the “square/Environmental blank” suggests that the bareness of the room makes the speaker’s physical environment “blank” or empty:

  • She has no point of reference or any way to get her bearings

  • The squareness and blankness of the room could also represent a blank sheet of paper and refer to the act of writing

  • The “blank” may represent the idea that the act of childbirth is so real and overwhelming that her surroundings feel empty and featureless in comparison

• The description of the room as “disinfected of paintings or toys” suggests that nothing in it relates to colour, or children, or life:

  • The room is likely to be disinfected to ensure sterile conditions for the birth

  • However, the description also suggests the speaker’s alienation, echoing the initial description of her looking out of the window

• The speaker projects herself into the space around her by writing and drawing on the walls in her imagination:

  • The speaker is a writer, so covering the walls with her own words is an act of self-assertion

  • She is reclaiming her individual identity at the moment of separation from her baby

  • However, the speaker’s “words” may also be her shouts as she gives birth

  • The image also mimics the way a child might draw on walls, pulling the focus back to the birth and foreshadowing future conflicts between mother and child

• The oxymoron of “wild, tender circles” mirrors the conflicting feelings of pain and love as the speaker gives birth:

  • The circles also represent the wholeness of both mother and baby as they become separate individuals

• Clarke emphasises the mother and baby’s individuality and their mutual desire – “our struggle” to “be two, to be ourselves”:

  • The “I” of the poem so far has become the plural “our” and “we”

  • This image continues the interweaving of conflict – the desire to be two separate people – with connection

  • The speaker and her child want the same thing, but that will separate them

Lines 18–24

“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,-”

Explanation

• The speaker reflects that neither she nor her daughter “won” in their struggle for separation:

  • The “glass tank” of the plastic hospital crib was metaphorically “clouded” with their new feelings, and their experience changed both of them forever

• The poem moves into the present tense to note that the speaker is “still” in some kind of conflict with her daughter

• The speaker’s visual description of Catrin brings the poem right into the present moment:

  • Her description conveys admiration for Catrin’s healthy hair and complexion

  • Catrin’s “defiant glare” continues the theme of conflict between her and the speaker

Clarke's intention

• The fact that neither mother nor daughter won or lost their struggle illustrates the balance in their relationship:

  • It also reflects the tension between connection and separation in the poem

• The “glass tank”, which is “clouded” suggests that their feelings about the birth and their situation are so overwhelming that they block out any other feelings:

  • “Clouded” could also suggest confusion about feelings that are still very new to them

• The speaker is fighting her daughter off, as if Catrin is attacking her by trying to separate further from her as she grows up

• There is a mixture of admiration and irritation in the speaker’s physical description of Catrin:

  • This mirrors the tension between connection and separation that characterises their relationship

• The fact that Catrin is “defiant” is further illustration of the balance of power in their relationship

Lines 24–29

“-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.”

Explanation

• The speaker returns to the metaphor of the rope to express her sense of connection with her daughter:

  • The connection is so deep that it reaches into the speaker’s “heart’s pool”, which represents the depth of her love for Catrin

  • However, the rope restricts the speaker, “tightening” around her, at the same time as it connects to her love for her daughter

  • The rope carries with it a long history of mixed love and conflict

• The speaker then returns to the present moment to report Catrin’s question, which has been the source of the conflict between them

• Catrin wants to stay out for one more hour to roller skate on the street, but the speaker has refused her permission to do so

Clarke's intention

• Clarke wants to convey the tension between love and conflict that characterises the mother-daughter relationship:

  • She does this by returning to the metaphor of the rope, which once connected them physically (the umbilical cord) and continues to connect them emotionally 

  • At the same time, their connection restricts the speaker’s life, because it occupies her feelings and her time

  • The rope also suggests the image of something tied up, like a boat moored in a harbour

• The metaphor of the “heart’s pool” reinforces this interpretation:

  • The “heart’s pool” represents the speaker’s love, but could also be an allusion to the lifeblood they shared before Catrin’s birth, or the genetic connection between them

• The return to the present moment reveals that the conflict over Catrin staying out later was the starting point for the speaker’s reflections:

  • The “now” of the poem has sent the speaker’s thoughts into the past, to examine the original source of her feelings for her daughter

  • The distance between them in the present is suggested by the phrase “in the dark”, which could refer to hidden feelings or information

Writer’s methods

This section is split into three areas: form, structure and language. Instead of treating these technical areas as separate, aim to integrate them in your analysis. Think about how Clarke's language, structure and form combine to get her ideas and message across in 'Catrin'. 

You will gain far more marks by focusing on Clarke's themes than on individual poetic techniques. Therefore, the analysis in the following sections is arranged by theme, and explores Clarke's use of:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Form

'Catrin' describes the speaker’s experience of giving birth to her daughter and the blend of connection and conflict that characterises their relationship. The speaker’s first-person reflections are provoked by a disagreement with her daughter, and her thoughts reach back to Catrin’s birth, to examine the original source of her feelings. The poem has no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme, and is split into two stanzas, with the subject of the second stanza reflecting back on the first. 

Structure

The poem begins in the past tense, as the speaker remembers giving birth to her daughter. It then moves into the present tense in the second stanza. The break between the two stanzas mirrors the physical separation that happens when the “tight/Red rope of love” is cut. The second stanza focuses on a disagreement between the speaker and her daughter. Running through the entire poem is the metaphor of the rope, which ties together the past and the present. Clarke uses enjambment and caesura to convey her speaker’s thought processes and to emphasise certain words.

Language

The vivid imagery in the poem is both visual and metaphorical. Clarke uses colour imagery, and refers to writing and drawing to reflect the creative act of giving birth. Although the poem is written in free verse, it contains distinctive verbal patterns, such as the repetition of “love”, “struggle” and “rope”, which connects the two stanzas. Despite the absence of regular rhyme, the assonance of groups of words in close proximity to each other has a unifying effect.

Context

Context can offer important insights into the poem, but you should avoid using information about Clarke or her biographical or literary context in a random way. Instead, aim to combine contextual information with your analysis of the poem's themes to demonstrate your understanding of her ideas and message. In 'Catrin', the main focus is on the struggle between conflict and connection between the speaker and her daughter, so this section is bullet-pointed under that central theme: 

• Conflict and connection

Conflict and connection

• Gillian Clarke (born in 1937) is a Welsh poet and playwright from Cardiff, who was the National Poet of Wales from 2008 to 2016:

  • ‘Catrin’, like much of her poetry, explores her own identity as a writer and a mother

  • She connects her identity with the themes she addresses in her poems

• Clarke often celebrates women’s domestic roles in her poetry:

  • Her poems frequently focus on the subject of motherhood

  • ‘Catrin’ is a poem that celebrates a mother’s role

  • The focus of ‘Catrin’ on bodily imagery is typical of Clarke’s poetry about motherhood

• Clarke often writes about her own family and her family history

• Clarke’s poems are often characterised by tension between two forces:

  • This is the case in ‘Catrin’, which explores the tension between conflict and connection in a mother-daughter relationship

  • Clarke’s own daughter is called Catrin, so the poem is derived from her personal experience

• Clarke’s writing often addresses armed conflicts:

  • For example, she has written about the 2021 Afghanistan War in ‘Listen’ and the 1990s conflicts in former Yugoslavia in ‘Letters from Bosnia’ 

  • Both of these poems, like ‘Catrin’, present images of mothers and children, and how they experience the effects of conflicts 

• Clarke also uses natural and domestic imagery extensively to get her ideas across:

  • These dual preoccupations with domestic life and conflict can also be seen in ‘Catrin’:

  • Clarke focuses on the mother-daughter relationship, but uses the language of conflict to describe their struggle

What to compare it to

In your exam, you will be asked to compare the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. That means it’s a good idea to revise pairs of poems together, in order to understand how each poet presents their ideas about conflict. This will enable you to write a thorough analysis of their similarities and differences. In 'Catrin', Clarke's main theme is the relationship between connection and conflict. Therefore, the following comparisons would be a good place to start:

• 'Catrin' and 'Poppies’

• 'Catrin' and 'The Man He Killed’ 

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell

• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem

• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem

• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

'Catrin' and ‘Poppies'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Parenthood features strongly in both poems, with each speaker describing their connection with their child in very direct terms. Conflict is also a main theme in both poems, but while Clarke addresses the tension between conflict and connection in her speaker’s relationship with her daughter, Weir’s speaker addresses the armed conflict that took her son away from her. 

Similarities:

Differences:

'Catrin' and 'The Man He Killed'

Comparison in a nutshell:

The theme of connection runs through both poems. Clarke’s speaker describes her bond with her daughter and Hardy’s speaker articulates his sense of recognition and similarity with the man he killed. While the conflict in ‘Catrin’ is a personal one between mother and daughter, the armed conflict in ‘The Man He Killed’ has resulted in the sense of regret that the poem focuses on. 

Similarities:

Differences: