Catrin (poem)

"Catrin" is a famous poem written by Welsh poet Gillian Clarke about her daughter, Catrin, growing up, and "the tight red rope of love", the strong bond between them that can never be broken.

Poem

I can remember you, child,

As I stood in a hot, white

Room at the window watching a count

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 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.

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.

It was written about an argument between them both while Catrin was young, as she wanted to skate outside in the dark and Gillian Clarke said no to her. This reminded Clarke of how she will have to let her go someday, as the dark symbolises independence upon herself.

"The tight red rope of love" also represents the umbilical cord as she gives birth to this child. She goes on "Which we both fought over." By this she is referring to the actual process of having a baby and how they struggle to remove the child from Clarke and the emotions she is feeling at the time. It says how Catrin was a beautiful person. It also describes how hard it is being a mother and the change that happens when a child grows up.

This poem is included in the GCSE AQA Anthology.

External links

• Gillian Clarke Homepage