Gillian Clarke: Poems Quizzes

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

1 Which collection was "Catrin" originally published in?
Making the Beds for the Dead (2004)

Letter From a Far Country (1982)

Collected Poems (1997)

The Sundial (1978)
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"?
Love, Controlling Behaviour, Conflict

Motherhood, Conflict, Love, and Individuation

Awe, Amusement, Integrity

Conflict, Bitterness, Controlling Behaviour
4 What does the speaker remember in "Catrin"?
The speaker's father teaching her Welsh.

The speaker's mother reading nursery rhymes.

Catrin asking to skate in the dark.

The day of Catrin's birth.
5 Where does the speaker's memory take place in "Catrin"?
The hospital

Ceredigion

Ireland

At home
6 What thematically separates the two stanzas in "Catrin"?
Before and after Catrin asks to go outside

Before and after birth

The speaker being connected then disconnected from her son

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

Iambic pentameter

Common meter

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

Friendship and Rage

Depression and Stress

Love and Depression
9 What is the "Red rope of love" in "Catrin"?
Climbing gear

The speaker's bracelet

The umbilical cord

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

Silence

Music

Notes
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"?
The struggles they face as women

Catrin's aquarium

The hospital

None of the above
13 Who wins the struggle between the speaker and Catrin?
No one wins or loses

They both win

Catrin

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

Onomatopoeia

Gustatory imagery

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?
"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?
The speaker plays at being a professional painter.

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.
18 Which best characterizes the speaker's experience in "Musician"?
Quiet awe as the sound of the piano combines with the snowfall

Intense discomfort in the bitter cold

Connection to her grandmother

Fear that her son will freeze to death
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 goes from being uncomfortable to characterizing the snow as beautiful and holy.

She characterizes the snow as bitterly cold throughout the poem.

She hates the snow throughout.
20 Which is an example of alliteration?
"Tightening about my life"

"Red rope of love"

"In the glass tank clouded with feelings"

"Which changed us both"
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?
"That bitterest winter, he took up the piano, obsessed," (5)

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

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

"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 come to harm as she grows up and leaves the house

That Catrin will play the piano like her brother.

That Catrin will never grow up and leave the house.

That Catrin will hate her as she grows up.
24 Which of the following is used in the lines "We want, we shouted, / To be two, to be ourselves" (16-17)?
Anaphora

Onomatopoeia

Rhyme

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

"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.

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

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