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