Summary
In "Catrin," the speaker addresses her daughter (named Catrin) while reflecting on the love, conflict, and separation that has defined their relationship since the girl's birth. The poem begins with the speaker recalling the day she gave birth to her daughter. In the speaker's memory, the hospital room is hot and white, and the speaker looks out a window at the alternating movement of pedestrians and cars. Traffic lights guide their movement.
Birth is the "first / Fierce confrontation" between the speaker and Catrin (2). The pair fight over the "tight / Red rope of love," which is the umbilical cord (7-8). The clear and sterile hospital room transforms when the speaker gives birth. She metaphorically 'writes' her words (likely shouted) on the walls and 'colors' all the squares in the room with circles of blood and afterbirth. These "wild, tender circles" are physically and metaphorically the pair's "struggle to become / Separate" (14 and 15-16). They vocalize their desire to separate during the birth, and this desire continues in the present day.
The speaker describes the struggle of birth as a draw—neither side won or lost. In the speaker's memory, she and her daughter cloud the "glass tank" of the hospital room with their complex and life-changing feelings (19). The poem moves into the present day as the speaker declares how she continues to experience conflict with her child. Catrin stands in front of the speaker, who details her daughter's healthy brown hair and "rosy, / Defiant glare" (23-24). The bond that once existed in the form of an umbilical cord continues to connect the mother and daughter, but this time it is described as an "old rope" unwinding from the speaker's heart (25). The rope constricts the speaker's life and trails "love and conflict" as Catrin asks whether she can go out for another hour to skate in the dark (27).
Analysis
"Catrin" was originally published in Clarke's 1978 collection The Sundial. In this deeply personal poem, Clarke explores motherhood, conflict, love, and individuation. A speaker should generally not be conflated with the poet, but Clarke states on her website that she thinks "Catrin" is about the question, "Why did my beautiful baby have to become a teenager?" Thus while "Catrin" is about the intimate bond between Clarke and her daughter, it is also about the shared experience of all mothers and daughters.
The poem is set in the present day as the speaker reflects on her relationship with her daughter. "Catrin" is divided into two stanzas of 17 and 12 lines in which the first stanza describes the day of the birth while the second focuses on the years leading up to the present moment. The lack of regular meter and rhyme accentuates a sense of freedom, echoing the freedom that comes with defining one's identity. However, there are moments of rhythm and musicality created by rhyme and alliteration. For example, the words "white," "lights," and "tight" create a rhyme that is spread across several lines in the first stanza (2, 5, and 7).
Shapes and colors play an important role in this poem. The setting in the first stanza is the "hot, white / Room" at the hospital where the speaker gave birth (2-3). Hospital rooms are generally painted white for practical and symbolic purposes. Hygienically, it is easier to spot dirt or biological waste on a white surface. Symbolically, it represents modernity and control. Clarke further paints a picture of this hospital room as a sanitary place devoid of life in the lines, "It was a square / Environmental blank, disinfected," and overlaps the shape of a square with the shade of white to convey orderly control (9-10).
Red is another important color in this poem, and it directly contrasts the white space. The "Red rope of love" which the speaker and her daughter fight over physically refers to the umbilical cord (8). The umbilical cord connects the baby to the mother's placenta, an organ that provides oxygen and nutrition as well as removes waste. Figuratively, the red rope signifies the bond—defined by both love and conflict—between the speaker and her daughter. Clarke describes the discharge involved in birth as "wild, tender circles" (14). These circles "[color] the clean squares" of the hospital room, juxtaposing the wild and natural experience of birth with the hospital's orderliness (13).
The experience of parenthood itself is contrasted with the sterile orderliness of the hospital. Clarke writes that the hospital room is "disinfected / Of paintings or toys," which the reader may imagine the speaker's house to be filled with (10-11). When the speaker "[writes] / all over the walls with [her] / words," this evokes the way a child might write and draw on walls at home (11-13). The speaker suggests that having children may disorder the environment of one's life, but it also makes it more vibrant.
The bond of love and conflict between the speaker and her daughter continues into the present moment. While recalling the birth, the speaker states, "We want, we shouted, / To be two, to be ourselves" (16-17). The present tense "we want" layers the two different chronologies in order to express an ongoing process of individuation. The anaphoras "We" and "To" also create an anthem-like rhythm.
No one wins in this conflict of individuation. The "struggle to become / Separate" is at first physical, but later morphs into a psychological conundrum (15-16). Clarke presents a paradox of parenting in this poem: namely, that the speaker feels at once that her daughter is a part of her traversing the external world while also that Catrin is her own person. This is why their bond is defined by "love and conflict" (27). The "old rope" of their bond pulls on the speaker's heart and constricts her life because Catrin requests to go out for one more hour to skate in the dark (25-26). Skating implies a graceful and easeful movement, while the dark represents the unknown dangers in the world. Although Catrin is an adolescent, the speaker still sees her as the baby she brought into this world. Her safety is not automatically guaranteed. Each time Catrin wishes to go out and experience something, the speaker understands the inherent risk in letting her daughter go. That "old rope" is the invisible umbilical cord that will connect the two forever (25).
