Why did my little girl have to grow up?
This is the key thought behind Gillian Clarke's poem about the struggles that exist between a mother and a daughter, and the bond that is formed at the moment that a mother births a child into the world. 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. I can remember you, our first Fierce confrontation, the tight Red rope of love which we both Fought over. It was 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. What's it all about? In Gillian Clarke's own words, this is a poem that ponders the question "why did my beautiful baby have to grow up and become a teenager?" Thematically, this is a poem about bonds, connections and the mother-daughter (or parent-child) relationship. What's the point of view? This is an autobiographical poem; Gillian Clarke's own daughter is called Catrin, although Catrin herself is never mentioned by name in the poem. Therefore, this could be a poem from any mother to her daughter. Think about the structure The poem is divided into two stanzas. The first stanza focuses on the process of birth; Clarke describes the experience of labour and delivering Catrin into the world. The second focuses on a present-day conflict between mother and daughter, as Catrin asks to stay out a little later. However, we mustn't leave it here - we must examine why she does this. We discussed the break between the stanzas, and what this might represent - might the 'gap' in the poem represent the gap that exists in the story? What can we assume went on here? We are forced to ponder what went on in the 'space between'. There is also a shift in tense - the first stanza is in the past tense; the second is in the present. This suggests that at the time of the skating incident, Clarke is remembering that moment when they first 'struggled' with differing ideas. The form of the poem is free verse, which could reflect the unstable nature of birth, life and motherhood - after all, life is not rhythmic and patterned; it is messy and chaotic. There is also enjambement in the poem - the lines flow quite nicely, although notice the line of our struggle to become separate. Some of the line breaks reflect actual breaks in the events. And the language too The language of Catrin is very simple. It isn't flashy, but there are lots of metaphors here - I wrote / all over the walls with my / words The tight red rope The wild, tender circles / of our struggle to become / separate The metaphors here are intense, which, when combined with the simplicity of the words, could suggest the intense and yet simple nature of the love a parent has for their child. Calling the birth a struggle shows that she puts the current 'struggles' she has with her child on a par with that first encounter. Birth was simply the first argument the two were to have, but it doesn't mean she loves her daughter any less. Note the use of the word still in the second stanza. The tight, red rope clearly represents the umbilical cord, but again brings up the idea of a struggle - a 'tug of war' between the two, thus continuing the semantic field of fights, battles and struggling. Interestingly, in a tug-of-war, your aim is to pull your opponent towards you - but when you cut the umbilical cord, you actually separate yourself from your child. There is conflict here, in this line - the desire to be free, but also to be close together. Another interesting idea is that of the description in the opening stanza - the traffic lights, which could reflect a simple, everyday sight but on a metaphorical level represents the current crossroads that the soon-to-be-mother is waiting at. She's about to give birth. Life is about to change. Imagine other methods A main point you could make about this poem is Clarke's use of alliteration. There is much to be said about the use of fricative and sibilant phonemes - the /f/ and /s/ sounds could represent Clarke's heavy breathing during labour, whereas the more plosive /st/ and /g/ sounds could represent her strength (and that of her daughter). The rhythm of the poem is quite gentle. This is not a poem with a regular, strident metre - it ebbs and flows, kind of like birth itself. The calm nature of the poem reflects Clarke's calm views of the birthing process. That Clarke chooses skating in the dark is interesting - it's such a non-event that it seems anti-climactic. We wonder why she didn't choose a huge event, like a wedding, or a grandchild. However, this is important in itself - the mundane request is something that most mothers will be asked, and most mothers will refuse - allowing all of us to relate to that feeling of being told 'no', whether we were the ones saying it or the ones being told it! The theme of tension occurs throughout this poem - literal tension (the tight red rope) and more metaphorical tension (struggle to become / separate). However, the tension is not aggressive; it is intertwined with love, just as the struggles and fights referenced throughout are, too. Poems for comparison
You can see the presentation for this lesson here:
0 Comments
|
An OverviewWe are studying the Conflict cluster from the Edexcel anthology. This exam is closed-book, so you will need to familiarise yourself with each poem's form, structure and language, in addition to how each poem is related, before the exam. ArchivesCategories
All
|