Gillian Clarke: Poems Quizzes

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

1 Which collection was "Catrin" originally published in?
Letter From a Far Country (1982)

The Sundial (1978)

Making the Beds for the Dead (2004)

Collected Poems (1997)
2 Which collection was "Musician" originally published in?
The Sundial (1978)

Letter From a Far Country (1982)

Collected Poems (1997)

The King of Britain's Daughter (1993)
3 Which of the following best represent the main themes in "Catrin"?
Love, Controlling Behaviour, Conflict

Conflict, Bitterness, Controlling Behaviour

Awe, Amusement, Integrity

Motherhood, Conflict, Love, and Individuation
4 What does the speaker remember in "Catrin"?
Catrin asking to skate in the dark.

The day of Catrin's birth.

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"?
The hospital

At home

Ceredigion

Ireland
6 What thematically separates the two stanzas in "Catrin"?
Before and after birth

The speaker being connected then disconnected from her daughter

The speaker being connected then disconnected from her son

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

Blank verse

Free verse

Iambic pentameter
8 What defines the speaker's experience of motherhood in "Catrin"?
Love and Depression

Depression and Stress

Love and Conflict

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

The speaker's bracelet

Climbing gear

Catrin's hair
10 What can Owain hear Beethoven Sonatas like?
Silence

Notes

Words

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

Catrin's lack of respect for her mother

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

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

No one wins or loses

Catrin

The speaker
14 Which of the following does Clarke mostly use in "Musician"?
Auditory imagery

Onomatopoeia

Rhyme

Gustatory imagery
15 What does the speaker use to contrast her experience of birth with the sterile hospital environment?
Colors and Shapes

Only Shapes

Only Colors

None of the Above
16 Which of the following descriptions from "Musician" convey the experience of awe?
"That bitterest winter, he took up the piano, obsessed" (5)

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

"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 hospital is a warm and inviting place.

The speaker plays at being a professional painter.

The speaker works in childcare.
18 Which best characterizes the speaker's experience in "Musician"?
Intense discomfort in the bitter cold

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

Fear that her son will freeze to death

Connection to her grandmother
19 How does the speaker's experience with the snow change in "Musician"?
She characterizes the snow as bitterly cold throughout the poem.

She loves it at first but then develops seasonal affective disorder.

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?
"Red rope of love"

"Which changed us both"

"Tightening about my life"

"In the glass tank clouded with feelings"
21 Does the poem "Catrin" rhyme?
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

Yes, at the end of each stanza
22 Which is an example of sibilance?
"His carpet splattered like a Jackson Pollock" (1)

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

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

"I slept under two duvets and my grandmother’s fur, and woke," (8)
23 What might the speaker be afraid of in "Catrin"?
That Catrin will never grow up and leave the house.

That Catrin will play the piano like her brother.

That Catrin will hate her as she grows up.

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

Onomatopoeia

Rhyme

Anaphora
25 How does the atmosphere of this poem compare with "Musician"?
Catrin and Owain both cause conflict with their mother.

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

"Musician" is calmer, and "Catrin" portrays a more tumultuous (but still loving) relationship between mother and child.

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

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