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English Literature

Catrin

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Comparison

In the exam, you will be required to write about several poems, some pre-1914 and some post-1914. To which poems would you compare Catrin? There will be a number of ways in which the poems can be compared, and you may well be able to think of ones which we have not!

 

Poet and poemWhat to look for in your comparison [comparison: A description of the similarities and differences between two things (in this case, two texts). ]
Clarke: Cold Knap Lake
  • In both poems, life is magically brought forth
  • ...yet Cold Knap Lake describes a virtual rebirth when the drowned girl is revived, rather than an actual birth.
  • Both contain conflict, but in Cold Knap Lake it is between the rescued girl and her parents, rather than between Clarke and her mother.
  • Clarke portrays her mother as a heroine in Cold Knap Lake. We are not told Catrin's feelings for her mother when she forbids her to go skating, but she is unlikely to see her in such glowing terms!
Yeats: The Song of the Old Mother
  • Both poems deal with the conflict between generations.
  • ...but in Yeats' poem there is no love. (Do you think that the struggles that Catrin and Clarke have experienced together actually increased their love?).
  • Both are written from the mother's point of view.
  • Catrin has a looser structure, while The Song is tightly structured. What could this suggest?
Wordsworth: The Affliction of Margaret
  • Both poems are from the mother's point of view and show that motherhood can be painful.
  • Yet while Margaret laments because she does not know what has happened to her beloved Son; Clarke suffers because of the tension between her and Catrin.
  • Both compare the child they knew (Margaret's the Young One) with the grown child; both show their pride in their offspring. Margaret's son was among the prime in worth, Catrin has a rosy, Defiant glare.
  • There is a sense of mystery in Wordsworth's poem, as no one knows the fate of the son; we pity Margaret. We sense the warmth in Clarke's relationship with Catrin, however.

Now try a Test Bite

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