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Characters · 3
Catrin
Catrin is the focus of Gillian Clarke's lyric poem of the same name, though she is addressed instead of being given a direct voice — the poem is narrated by her mother, reflecting on the past.
character
The Child (Catrin as a teenager)
The Child represents the teenage version of Catrin, the speaker's daughter, who appears in the latter half of Gillian Clarke's poem Catrin.
character
The Mother (Speaker)
The Mother (Speaker) serves as the narrator and central consciousness in Gillian Clarke's poem "Catrin."
character
Key quotes · 5
“We fought over this, / And I am fighting / It still.”
These closing lines are from "Catrin," a poem by the Welsh poet Gillian Clarke.
The mother (poetic speaker / Gillian Clarke)
“Neither won nor lost the struggle / In the glass tank clouded with feelings.”
This quote is from "Catrin," a well-known poem by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke.
The mother (poetic speaker / Gillian Clarke)
“The tight red rope of love / Which we both fought over.”
This striking image comes from "Catrin," a poem by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke.
The mother (poetic speaker / Gillian Clarke)
“I wrote / All over the walls with my / Words, coloured the clean squares / With the wild, / Tender circles of our struggle.”
This quote is from "Catrin," a poem by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke, spoken by a mother to her daughter, Catrin.
The mother (poetic speaker / Gillian Clarke)
“You, your straight, strong, long / Brown hair and your rosy, / Defiant glare.”
These closing lines come from "Catrin," a poem by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke, spoken by a mother to her daughter, Catrin.
The mother (Gillian Clarke, autobiographical speaker)
Symbols · 4
The Dark Night / Skating Rink
In Gillian Clarke's poem Catrin, the dark night and the skating rink symbolize the ongoing struggle between a mother's protective love and her child's desire for independence.
The Red Rope of Love
In Gillian Clarke's poem Catrin, the red rope of love represents the complicated relationship between mother and daughter — both nurturing and restrictive at the same time.
The Rope / Cord
In Gillian Clarke's poem Catrin, the rope or cord symbolizes the complex relationship between a mother and her daughter.
The White Room
In Gillian Clarke's poem Catrin, the white room represents the raw, intense space of origin where the mother-daughter relationship is both created and challenged.
Literary devices · 12
Extended Metaphor
The poem's central metaphor is the 'rope of love' that ties the mother and daughter together.
Juxtaposition
Clarke builds the poem around two contrasting scenes: the delivery room where Catrin is born and a later everyday moment when the teenage Catrin asks to stay out longer.
Imagery
Sensory imagery fills the poem.
Metaphor
Beyond the extended rope metaphor, Clarke uses several compact metaphors.
Free Verse
The poem is crafted in free verse, lacking a regular rhyme scheme or fixed metrical pattern.
Enjambment
Enjambment propels the poem's emotional flow.
Symbolism
The rope stands out as the main symbol in the poem, but Clarke also gives the poem's physical space significant meaning.
Paradox
The poem revolves around a central paradox: giving birth — the ultimate expression of love — is also depicted as a struggle.
Stanza
Clarke splits the poem into two stanzas of different lengths.
Alliteration
Alliteration creates moments of sonic intensity that highlight emotional peaks.
Volta
The poem's volta — its turn — happens in the white space between the two stanzas.
Motif
The motif of fighting — struggle, resistance, and opposition — appears throughout the poem, bringing together its two scenes.
Vocabulary · 12
register
An official record book kept by a hospital or government office in which important events such as births are formally written down and preserved.
noun · Chapter 1
clean squares
The blank, empty boxes printed on an official form, ready to be filled in — suggesting order and newness before life's complications begin.
phrase · Chapter 1
rope of love
The poem's name for the umbilical cord, the physical link between mother and unborn child, here treated as something that both binds them together and is the source of their struggle.
phrase · Chapter 1
fought over
Competed or struggled for control of something; here it means mother and child each pulled against the other during the birth, neither willing to simply yield.
phrase · Chapter 1
tightening
Becoming more constricting or harder to escape; here it suggests the emotional bond growing more demanding and pressuring as the daughter grows older.
verb · Chapter 1
trailing
Dragging or pulling something along behind; here the rope of love is imagined as still attached, drawing both love and conflict along with it through time.
verb · Chapter 1
conflict
A clash of opposing desires or wills; in this poem it refers to the ongoing tension between the mother's wish to protect and the daughter's drive for independence.
noun · Chapter 1
stark
Bare, harsh, and completely without decoration or comfort; used to describe the cold, clinical atmosphere of the hospital delivery room.
adjective · Chapter 1
labour
The physical process of childbirth, during which the mother's body works intensely to push the baby out; here it is also treated as an emotional and combative struggle.
noun · Chapter 1
umbilical
Relating to the cord that connects an unborn baby to its mother, supplying it with nutrients and oxygen; the poem uses it as the central symbol of connection and separation.
adjective · Chapter 1
taut
Stretched tight and under tension, not slack; the poem uses it to convey that the emotional bond between mother and daughter has never relaxed or been fully released.
adjective · Chapter 1
autonomy
The freedom to make one's own choices and act independently; the daughter's desire for this is what drives the recurring tension with her protective mother.
noun · Chapter 1