Gillian Clarke: Poems Quizzes

You need to log in to continue

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

By Isabella Ribeiro · Edited by James Cooper · Last reviewed October 28, 2024

1 Which collection was "Catrin" originally published in?

Making the Beds for the Dead (2004)

Collected Poems (1997)

Letter From a Far Country (1982)

The Sundial (1978)
2 Which collection was "Musician" originally published in?

Letter From a Far Country (1982)

The King of Britain's Daughter (1993)

Collected Poems (1997)

The Sundial (1978)
3 Which of the following best represent the main themes in "Catrin"?

Motherhood, Conflict, Love, and Individuation

Conflict, Bitterness, Controlling Behaviour

Love, Controlling Behaviour, Conflict

Awe, Amusement, Integrity
4 What does the speaker remember in "Catrin"?

Catrin asking to skate in the dark.

The day of Catrin's birth.

The speaker's mother reading nursery rhymes.

The speaker's father teaching her Welsh.
5 Where does the speaker's memory take place in "Catrin"?

The hospital

Ireland

Ceredigion

At home
6 What thematically separates the two stanzas in "Catrin"?

The speaker being connected then disconnected from her son

Before and after birth

Before and after Catrin asks to go outside

The speaker being connected then disconnected from her daughter
7 What is the meter of both poems?

Common meter

Iambic pentameter

Free verse

Blank verse
8 What defines the speaker's experience of motherhood in "Catrin"?

Love and Conflict

Love and Depression

Depression and Stress

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

The umbilical cord

Catrin's hair

The speaker's bracelet

Climbing gear
10 What can Owain hear Beethoven Sonatas like?

Notes

Words

Silence

Music
11 What is the main conflict between the speaker and Catrin?

Their selfishness

Their close bond in conjunction with their respective need to be individuals

Catrin's lack of respect for her mother

Their lack of a bond
12 What is the "glass tank"?

The struggles they face as women

The hospital

Catrin's aquarium

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

They both win

Catrin

The speaker

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

Gustatory imagery

Onomatopoeia

Rhyme

Auditory imagery
15 What does the speaker use to contrast her experience of birth with the sterile hospital environment?

Colors and Shapes

Only Colors

Only Shapes

None of the Above
16 Which of the following descriptions from "Musician" convey the experience of awe?

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

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

"His carpet splattered like a Jackson Pollock" (1)

None of the Above
17 The mention of paintings and toys in "Catrin" could suggest what?

The speaker works in childcare.

The speaker plays at being a professional painter.

The hospital is a warm and inviting place.

Becoming a parent brings both more messiness and more vibrancy to life.
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 hates the snow throughout.

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

She characterizes the snow as bitterly cold throughout the poem.

She loves it at first but then develops seasonal affective disorder.
20 Which is an example of alliteration?

"Red rope of love"

"Which changed us both"

"In the glass tank clouded with feelings"

"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)

"a first pianissimo slip of snow from the roof" (22)

"That bitterest winter, he took up the piano, obsessed," (5)
23 What might the speaker be afraid of in "Catrin"?

That Catrin will hate her as she grows up.

That Catrin will play the piano like her brother.

That Catrin will never grow up and leave the house.

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)?

Onomatopoeia

Synecdoche

Rhyme

Anaphora
25 How does the atmosphere of this poem compare with "Musician"?

Catrin and Owain both cause conflict with their mother.

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

"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.

Essays for Gillian Clarke: Poems

Gillian Clarke: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Gillian Clarke: Poems.

Wikipedia Entries for Gillian Clarke: Poems

Introduction

View Wikipedia Entries for Gillian Clarke: Poems…