Gillian Clarke: Poems Quizzes

Gillian Clarke: Poems Quiz "Catrin" and "Musician"

1 Which collection was "Catrin" originally published in?
Collected Poems (1997)

The Sundial (1978)

Making the Beds for the Dead (2004)

Letter From a Far Country (1982)
2 Which collection was "Musician" originally published in?
The Sundial (1978)

The King of Britain's Daughter (1993)

Letter From a Far Country (1982)

Collected Poems (1997)
3 Which of the following best represent the main themes in "Catrin"?
Motherhood, Conflict, Love, and Individuation

Love, Controlling Behaviour, Conflict

Conflict, Bitterness, Controlling Behaviour

Awe, Amusement, Integrity
4 What does the speaker remember in "Catrin"?
The day of Catrin's birth.

Catrin asking to skate in the dark.

The speaker's father teaching her Welsh.

The speaker's mother reading nursery rhymes.
5 Where does the speaker's memory take place in "Catrin"?
Ceredigion

At home

The hospital

Ireland
6 What thematically separates the two stanzas in "Catrin"?
The speaker being connected then disconnected from her son

The speaker being connected then disconnected from her daughter

Before and after birth

Before and after Catrin asks to go outside
7 What is the meter of both poems?
Common meter

Iambic pentameter

Blank verse

Free verse
8 What defines the speaker's experience of motherhood in "Catrin"?
Love and Conflict

Depression and Stress

Love and Depression

Friendship and Rage
9 What is the "Red rope of love" in "Catrin"?
Climbing gear

Catrin's hair

The speaker's bracelet

The umbilical cord
10 What can Owain hear Beethoven Sonatas like?
Notes

Silence

Words

Music
11 What is the main conflict between the speaker and Catrin?
Catrin's lack of respect for her mother

Their selfishness

Their lack of a bond

Their close bond in conjunction with their respective need to be individuals
12 What is the "glass tank"?
Catrin's aquarium

The struggles they face as women

The hospital

None of the above
13 Who wins the struggle between the speaker and Catrin?
The speaker

Catrin

They both win

No one wins or loses
14 Which of the following does Clarke mostly use in "Musician"?
Onomatopoeia

Auditory imagery

Gustatory imagery

Rhyme
15 What does the speaker use to contrast her experience of birth with the sterile hospital environment?
Only Shapes

Only Colors

Colors and Shapes

None of the Above
16 Which of the following descriptions from "Musician" convey the experience of awe?
"His carpet splattered like a Jackson Pollock" (1)

"That bitterest winter, he took up the piano, obsessed" (5)

"and woke, suffocating, in the luminous nights" (9)

None of the Above
17 The mention of paintings and toys in "Catrin" could suggest what?
Becoming a parent brings both more messiness and more vibrancy to life.

The speaker works in childcare.

The hospital is a warm and inviting place.

The speaker plays at being a professional painter.
18 Which best characterizes the speaker's experience in "Musician"?
Fear that her son will freeze to death

Connection to her grandmother

Quiet awe as the sound of the piano combines with the snowfall

Intense discomfort in the bitter cold
19 How does the speaker's experience with the snow change in "Musician"?
She loves it at first but then develops seasonal affective disorder.

She characterizes the snow as bitterly cold throughout the poem.

She goes from being uncomfortable to characterizing the snow as beautiful and holy.

She hates the snow throughout.
20 Which is an example of alliteration?
"In the glass tank clouded with feelings"

"Red rope of love"

"Which changed us both"

"Tightening about my life"
21 Does the poem "Catrin" rhyme?
Yes, at the end of each stanza

Not consistently, but rhyme occurs in the last stanza with the words "white," "lights," and "tight"

Not consistently, but rhyme occurs in the first stanza with the words "white," "lights," and "tight"

Not at all
22 Which is an example of sibilance?
"His carpet splattered like a Jackson Pollock" (1)

"I slept under two duvets and my grandmother’s fur, and woke," (8)

"That bitterest winter, he took up the piano, obsessed," (5)

"a first pianissimo slip of snow from the roof" (22)
23 What might the speaker be afraid of in "Catrin"?
That Catrin will hate her as she grows up.

That Catrin will never grow up and leave the house.

That Catrin will play the piano like her brother.

That Catrin will come to harm as she grows up and leaves the house
24 Which of the following is used in the lines "We want, we shouted, / To be two, to be ourselves" (16-17)?
Synecdoche

Anaphora

Onomatopoeia

Rhyme
25 How does the atmosphere of this poem compare with "Musician"?
"Musician" is calmer, and "Catrin" portrays a more tumultuous (but still loving) relationship between mother and child.

"Musician" expresses a more strained parent-child relationship.

Both express a smooth-sailing relationship between parent and child.

Catrin and Owain both cause conflict with their mother.

Clarke presents her retreat as remote, natural, and without conveniences. It was a place of hard work, it was isolated, and its surrounding were often bleak, and yet, through her description, we know that it was the place she called home.

Asked by Mickey M #1189802

Answered by jill d #170087 on 11/8/2021 9:51 PM