Owain
Clarke dedicates the poem "Musician" to Owain, her eldest son. On her personal website, Clarke describes how Owain is a talented musician who taught himself how to play several instruments. During the course of one bitterly cold winter, he learned the piano. Owain's messy room and lack of sleep demonstrate his total engrossment in music. The soundtrack of his playing combines with the speaker's impression of the snowfall to generate a calm and luminous atmosphere in the poem.
Catrin
Although Catrin is the poet's daughter, the character in the poem can represent any child. In other words, Clarke portrays the bond between the speaker and her daughter as being one of both love and conflict. As she grows older, Catrin wishes to go out and experience the world despite its possible risks. Both she and the speaker claim their independent selves within the mother-daughter bond.
Birds
A variety of birds appear in Clarke's poems. In "Heron at Port Talbot," the speaker nearly collides with a heron. In "Neighbours," birds contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear explosion fly and die over different European countries. All these birds retain integrity as their own characters in the poems, but they also symbolize concepts such as freedom and flight.
The Poet as the Speaker
In general, one should not assume that the speaker in a poem is the poet. However, Clarke has stated in interviews and on her website that many of her poems are deeply personal. Thus, one can assume that the speakers in Clarke's poems reflect particular moments and feelings in her life. For example, Clarke addresses two of her poems to her children Catrin and Owain. Particularly in the poem "Catrin," Clarke as the speaker explores the tumultuous and rewarding experience of parenthood.
The Collective "We" in "Neighbours"
In the poem "Neighbours," the speaker uses the first-person plural "we." Through this "we," Clarke explores the sense of unification between different European people after the disaster at Chernobyl. The word "democracy" indicates this ironic unification, which only comes into existence in the face of such terrible circumstances. These include environmental pollution, radiation sickness, and long-term diseases.
The Stone Age Woman
In "Lunchtime Lecture," the speaker encounters the preserved skull of a long-dead woman. Clarke uses both impersonal scientific language and intimate imagery to depict this woman. The speaker compares her to a tree and later imagines her as "Fleshed, with woman's hair and colours" (24). Ultimately, this character leads the speaker to reflect on the fleeting nature of human existence.
